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Is tobacco control no longer a federal priority?
May. 25, 2011
In the past decade, the smoking rate has fallen to 18 per cent from 25 per cent. That falls well short of the target of 12 per cent established in the FTCS. And, worse yet, the smoking rate has held steady for several years now, which tells us that new smokers are replacing those who die… Over the past five years, [Health Canada] has routinely underspent its program budget by $9-million to $15-million annually… Smoking rates are highest in aboriginal communities, yet Ottawa inexplicably canceled the first nations and Inuit tobacco control strategy and replaced it with a few small projects…
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Bell’s $10-million donation hailed as mental-health game-changer
May. 12, 2011
CAMH is in the midst of a massive redevelopment that is transforming its archaic facilities on Queen Street in Toronto into a modern campus where clinicians, researchers and educators will work side-by-side with patients in a supportive environment… The new corporate gift will pay for the Bell Gateway Building that will serve as the “front door” to the new campus. George Cope, president and CEO of Bell and BCE Inc., said he hopes the large and visible donation will encourage others to follow suit. “We felt this was an area where we could use our brand to make a difference.”
Tags: budget, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
It’s time to find a cure for the problem of how doctors are paid
Apr. 28, 2011
… the fastest-growing health expense in Canada is not drugs, it is physician services… there are more doctors – 68,100 and rising. In the last year alone, there has been a net gain of 2,700 physicians… Three-quarters of physician payments are made on a fee-for-service basis… it is open-ended. Physicians can see as many patients as they wish (or is practical) and bill for services rendered – even if that care could be more efficiently delivered by a nurse or pharmacist. It creates an incentive for over-consumption… a phenomenon known in the literature as supplier-induced demand.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Government-sanctioned online gambling: short-sighted and morally bankrupt
Apr. 21, 2011
There are few public policies that are more short-sighted, misguided and morally bankrupt. Gambling is unhealthy – financially, socially and, sometimes, physically… All gambling is tends to be anti-social activity – a destroyer of families and relationships – and never more so than when done online… Canada has essentially taken a “we can’t do anything about it” attitude, even though one of the biggest online gambling hubs in the world is located in Kahnawake, a native reserve just outside Montreal.
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Health care: Parties set out their approaches
Apr. 22, 2011
Health care and the economy are the two issues Canadians consistently say mean the most to them, but they’re not getting that much substantive air time in the campaign. With this primer, The Globe and Mail addresses that. In this special feature, public-health reporter André Picard frames the problems and politics reporter Steven Chase tries to pin down the parties.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Stillbirth epidemic claims more lives each year than HIV-AIDS and malaria combined
Apr. 14, 2011
The vast majority of stillbirths are preventable. In wealthy countries like Canada, where high-tech obstetrics are the norm, stillbirths are linked to smoking, obesity, advanced maternal age, and abnormalities in the placenta and umbilical cord… The real complications are poverty and lack of access to basic healthcare services for women… Stated bluntly, stillbirth is inversely correlated with wealth; the problem exists largely where there is rampant poverty, no education and poor housing, like all conditions that stalk mothers and children.
Tags: Health, standard of living, women
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Action, not excuses, on drug coverage
Apr. 06, 2011
The philosophical/moral arguments for pharmacare are powerful and compelling. The economic ones are almost as strong… The key to a viable drug insurance program is cost control and firm regulation. That’s why these programs work in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In Canada we talk endlessly about how much drugs costs; we should be instead talking about how we can make essential drugs affordable for individuals and the collectivity.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »
The Tories’ buried budget line: Funding for brain research
Mar. 24, 2011
If our future prosperity lies in knowledge, we need to nurture our most precious natural resource – our brains. One way to do that is larger and smarter investments in education. But another key component is preventing and treating brain diseases, which are a $60-billion a year drain on the economy annually. An estimated 5.5 million Canadians live with a neurological condition. There is a broad spectrum of conditions… One in five people will also suffer from a mental health problem like depression some time in their life.
Tags: disabilities, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Health system ‘makes a mockery’ of medicare values
Mar. 09, 2011
Dr. Turnbull, co-founder of the Ottawa Inner City Health program, stresses that investing in education, poverty reduction and social housing are essential elements for population health. About one-fifth of all health spending is attributable to socioeconomic disparities, so we all pay for inequity… Medicare has a foundation of sound principles: Universality, accessibility, comprehensiveness, portability and public administration. “Our health care system today makes a mockery of those principles, both in letter and in spirit,” Dr. Turnbull says.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
What the Yukon can teach us about fixing health care
Mar. 02, 2011
Ms. Fraser said she set out to answer two fundamental questions with her audit: “What are you trying to achieve? And how do you measure progress?” The answers were less than comforting… * It has no idea whether it’s providing the right programs to improve the health of Yukoners; * It lacks clear plans and priorities; * It routinely goes over budget, in violation of the law; * It fails to adequately collect, compile and analyze even the most basic health data; * It has no health human resources plan. Ms. Fraser found the road to hell paved with good intentions.
Tags: budget, Health, Native, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
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