Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Active federal participation in health care remains essential
Apr 14 2012
the 2012 federal budget cut Health Canada, and said nothing about meaningful change. The only nod to improving the system was a three-year, $6.5-million study on cost-effectiveness in health care. But that ignores the mountains of evidence we already have about how to improve our health-care system while making it more efficient. It’s becoming baffling to Canadians as to why our federal government wouldn’t co-ordinate a national pharmacare system that could save billions.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Health Canada should not have closed National Aboriginal Health Organization
Apr. 09, 2012
… NAHO has played a crucial role in advancing research on aboriginal health, collecting and analyzing data, and leading community initiatives, such as programs to help people quit smoking, prevent suicide and avoid teen pregnancy… Aboriginals face unique challenges that seriously impact their health… The closure of NAHO will… leave a gaping hole for those who are most in need.
Tags: budget, Health, Native, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Toronto doctor worries budget cuts will affect poor patients the most
Mar 27 2012
… for Bloch, a family physician and University of Toronto professor who founded Health Providers Against Poverty, the government’s austerity-focused agenda does a disservice to public health, especially for the poor… “I’m very concerned… I’m worried it’s a cut with a dull knife and it’s largely the people who live in poverty, especially the extreme end of poverty, who are impacted the most.”… he added that wider social service cuts recommended in the budget — freezing welfare and disability support payments, for example — will likely do enormous damage to his patients’ health in the short-term.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | 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 »
Ontario hospital-funding changes to favour growing communities
Mar. 18, 2012
The Ontario government is doing away with the global hospital budgets that for decades have allocated funding evenly across the board… Health Based Allocation Model, or HBAM for short, will divert more money to hospitals in regions where the population is growing and aging and where health-care costs are often higher. Hospitals will also be in line for additional money, based on how effectively they treat patients… The pay packets of hospital executives are now linked to their progress in meeting quality-of-care targets…
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadian health care needs a massive transformation
Mar 14 2012
We need to provide comprehensive, integrated, community-based services that will improve population health, reduce inequities, reduce health-care expenditures and contribute to the sustainability of our publicly funded health system.
One essential step toward this transformation would be a coordinated pan-Canadian effort to develop indicators and databases that will support accountability in health care and drive the required changes… The health-care system was designed long ago to attend to a high prevalence of acute, infectious disease rather than our current pattern where chronic conditions prevail. The old business model provides poor service for people today with chronic conditions
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ottawa’s health-care dollars should come with strings attached
Mar. 07, 2012
Stephen Harper, it is said, has a compartmentalized view of federalism. Let Ottawa do what Ottawa should do; let the provinces do what they should do. Let each stay out of the other’s hair… Conservative or Liberal, every federal government since Diefenbaker has placed some conditions (or tried to) on federal transfers for health care. Federal governments wanted political profile, of course, for Ottawa’s money, but they also sensed that the public viewed health care as something “Canadian” that transcended provincial boundaries.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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