How a financial incentive to take on new patients is backfiring in New Brunswick. A common misperception is that the government doesn’t think that money motivates doctors. Think again:

But Ms Lingley’s laissez-faire approach to managing the impact of the $150 incentive points to a common misunderstanding of medical economics, says Atlantic Institute for Market Studies analyst Brian S Ferguson, PhD. Doctors’ decision-making is affected by financial incentives to a greater extent than many think, according to a 2002 AIMS report. Dr Ferguson looked at a number of Canadian and international examples and concluded that physicians respond to market forces, including cash bonuses, the same as any other professionals.

But that’s a view not universally shared in government circles. “Much confusion and bad policy follows from the inability of many policy analysts to handle the techniques of an elementary economics course,” wrote Dr Ferguson in a scathing commentary that now appears prescient.