Harper’s disregard for aboriginal health
Apr. 09, 2012
The abysmal health status of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples is Canada’s greatest shame… There’s a disturbing pattern here. The government has also cut funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. And the First Nations and Inuit Health branch at Health Canada oversees what is without question the worst health system in Canada, making every effort to slough the responsibility off onto the provinces and territories… “The Conservatives want out of the aboriginal business.”
Tags: budget, Health, Native, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
How do we control physician costs?
Mar. 20, 2012
In its last deal, the OMA did well, squeezing 12.5 per cent in pay increases out of the government over four years – 3, 2, 2 and 4.5 per cent annually from 2008 to 2012… Very few doctors get a set salary that can be frozen… About 70 per cent of Ontario doctors now receive some level of alternative funding but, over all, 70 per cent of their earnings come from fee-for-service billings. In the recent report of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, Don Drummond said this equation should be flipped so that doctors receive 30 per cent of their pay via fee-for-service. Otherwise, it’s virtually impossible to control costs.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Don’t shut disabled kids out of society
Jan. 31, 2012
Dr. Snowdon makes three main recommendations: * Create a single online reference tool that lists all community programs, services and professional care available to people with disabilities. * Invest in programs where disabled kids are integrated, not segregated, so they can feel part of their community. * Find ways to expand the social networks of children and teenagers to break the isolation… being a “virtual” citizen is only a baby step in the right direction, it’s not enough… isolation was far more painful to live with than physical or development disabilities themselves.
Tags: disabilities, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
The premiers want more health-care study? Seriously?
Jan. 24, 2012
We don’t need more studies or committees. Every royal commission, provincial inquiry, independent analysis for the past five decades has come to the same basic conclusions about what we need to do reform medicare: * Control spending by limiting medicare coverage to essential treatments that work; * Modernize primary care by moving away from solo physician practices to interdisciplinary teams; * Create some kind of universal prescription drug plan; * Shift money from institutional care to home care … [and] … invest it in palliative care.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Shrewd tactics not the same as good health policy
Dec. 20, 2011
… the deal offered by Mr. Harper’s government is reasonable. It is fiscally responsible, tying spending increases to inflation… [but] federal funds be used to exercise leadership and foster innovation (or to “buy change”… there are areas, such as catastrophic drug coverage and homecare, where there are gross regional disparities… Federal dollars should be used to level the playing field, to ensure there is a semblance of a national medicare program. That should be a goal even for a government that, philosophically, believes in decentralization, as the current one does.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Days of blindly topping up medicare are over
Nov. 23, 2011
…the CHT gives Ottawa the moral authority (if not the legal right) to impose conditions on provincial health spending, and to create a semblance of a national system… hospitals, physicians, nurses, patients or others, have been saying for years that they want Ottawa to place strict conditions on the CHT as a way of ensuring specific programs are undertaken.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Despite Insite victory, Canada’s drug strategy is deeply flawed
Oct. 03, 2011
A comprehensive drug strategy has four pillars: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The court has shored up one of those pillars, harm reduction. The government has embraced one other, enforcement. The other two key elements, prevention and treatment, have been starved of funds, leaving us with a teetering response to one of society’s biggest public-health challenges – drug misuse and addiction.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
What kind of health system does Ontario want?
Jul. 07, 2011
Do we want the system in which administrative power is centralized in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care in Toronto? Or do we want a highly decentralized system in which regional authorities have real power? …Planning and management should not be dirty words. And those who want to lead the government should articulate their vision of how that system should be run. “Scrap LHINs” is not a vision; it’s a cop-out.
Tags: budget, Health, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
… superbug outbreak abates, but enemy still lurks
Jul. 14, 2011
… handwashing is necessary for health-care workers, patients and visitors. But in Canada, we too often skimp on support staff like janitors. It’s not enough, however, to throw bodies with mops into the equation: In health care, everything should be evidence-based… Just as important as preventing the spread of pathogens is minimizing patient susceptibility… There is a lot of evidence that antibiotics are overused… But more than anything.. a change of attitude is needed. We need to empower patients and their families with basic information.
Tags: Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Tories set to steer new course on health care funding
May. 28, 2011
The Canada Health Transfer, which currently provides $27-billion in cash and $13.6-billion in tax points, expires in 2014… bilateral agreements are a real possibility because the Conservatives have said repeatedly that health is strictly a provincial matter… [and] that they are going to revamp the federal-provincial fiscal arrangement… One of the… proposals… suggested that Ottawa do away with the myriad programs it has for transfers and equalization payments and instead turn over the monies collected from the federal GST to the provinces.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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