Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
Focus on children first in tackling mental health
May 08 2012
… the Mental Health Commission of Canada released its blueprint for a national strategy to properly treat and support Canadians with mental illness. The comprehensive document covers every aspect of what needs to change – from how employers and schools handle mental illness to the need for more affordable housing and a reformed justice system that doesn’t criminalize illness. The danger now, though, is that rather than embracing the challenge, Harper may throw up his hands at the enormity of it all – and the seemingly high price-tag that comes with it.
Tags: mental Health, standard of living, youth
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Health reform? Ottawa must provide clarity
Apr. 26, 2012
While the CHA says there must be deductions from federal cash transfers for extra-billing “by medical practitioners or dentists in the province,” it’s unclear as to whether extra-billing by providers in another province automatically requires federal penalties… to the degree that providing such clarity is a key step toward meaningful public dialogue on health care in Canada, the federal government should do so. Clarity is one thing that’s clearly missing from current debates.
Tags: budget, Health, rights
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Health Canada isn’t helping Canadians cut salt intake
Apr 19 2012
… why here in Canada is our fast food even more sodium-laden than in other countries? … Health Canada has indeed recognized that our sodium-rich foods are putting our health at risk. So what does this government agency do to help Canadians reach recommended targets? Not much… the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will no longer police food labels. It’s just the latest in a number of moves that appear to be putting corporate health before the health of Canadians… With the government relinquishing its watchdog status, there is nothing to motivate companies to correct inaccurate and potentially misleading information that may make their products appear healthier.
Tags: Health, ideology, standard of living
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Ontario ombudsman could hold hospitals to account
Apr 08 2012
Ontario is… the only province whose ombudsman cannot investigate hospitals and long-term care facilities… they would perform better if they were subject to the scrutiny of my office, like virtually every other provincial ministry, agency, board, tribunal and Crown corporation… Every year, we hear from hundreds of patients and their loved ones who say they’ve endured inadequate care, unsafe conditions, even neglect and abuse in hospitals.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
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When emotion prevails over cold, hard science in public policy
Dec. 02, 2011
Should we be crafting policy and spending money on the basis of exceptionalism? But how do we begin to answer that question when there’s no public consensus on the exact point where the general good is no longer served by the benefits to a few?… Exceptionalism is at the root of many public-policy issues where emotion, self-interest and personal experience conflict with the more dispassionate, evidence-based approach of science. And with good reason: The individual story changes everything in how we relate to a prickly policy issue
Tags: budget, Health, rights
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Women in the dark about massive Ontario study of female health
Mar 06 2012
The most useful chapters for women seeking practical guidance are: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, reproductive health and older women’s health. The chapters on cancer and musculoskeletal conditions (arthritis, osteoporosis) identify gender disparities, regional disparities and socioeconomic parities, but they don’t tell women much about how to improve their odds… it could be a catalyst for change. Its research team estimates that if Ontario had a truly equitable health-care system, there would be 230,000 fewer people with disabilities and 3,373 fewer premature deaths in the province’s big cities.
Tags: Health, participation, standard of living, women
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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
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The politics of Harper’s medicare decision
Jan. 20, 2012
When Stephen Harper was campaigning for the first time, he proposed a Patient Wait Times Guarantee linked to federal money. Now, however, Mr. Harper is going to give money to the provinces (they got federal tax points for health care a long time ago, a transfer they never mention) without any strings, conditions or demands. It’ll be the first time since medicare began that a federal government has handed money over carte blanche. Broadly speaking, two reasons explain his decision – one theoretical, one political.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health
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The haves and have-nots of medicare
Jan. 17, 2012
There’s an ominous new meaning for two-tier medicine in Canada: rather than one system for rich people and one for the poor, it will be one system for rich provinces and one for the poor… There isn’t a truly equal level of health care in Canada even now. Wealthy provinces have hospitals and programs that poorer ones can only envy. Wait times for certain procedures can vary widely between jurisdictions… The question is: will Ottawa’s new no-strings-attached funding proposal exacerbate the discrepancies in health care that already exist? And does Ottawa even care if it does?
Tags: budget, Health, rights, standard of living, tax
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Dalton McGuinty can’t play Captain Canada to rescue medicare
Jan 14 2012
Flaherty’s diktat has sucked the air out of the premiers’ conferences because there is little left to fight about — except amongst themselves. A split has emerged between western premiers who deemed Ottawa’s offer reasonable and those who denounced it as wretched… Victoria can serve as a clearing house for “best practices” and interprovincial brainwaves on innovation, but it won’t provide any panaceas… McGuinty needs to get out in front of the funding challenges in his own backyard: highly paid doctors, a poorly integrated health care system, modest community care and meagre home-care programs.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
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