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The digital revolution is coming to health care. Are we ready?
Thursday, August 22nd, 2019
We are told that there are overwhelming privacy concerns with electronic communication. Again, this is bunk. If we can safely do our banking online, we can certainly manage health interactions… What technology does is to empower consumers. It may also cost doctors and hospitals in dollars and power… Technology is going to change the patient-clinician relationship.
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
To bolster health, would basic income — not pharmacare — make more sense?
Tuesday, June 25th, 2019
… shouldn’t the priority of policy-makers be to ensure that all Canadians can afford necessities such as food and housing, not just prescription drugs? … Affordable sickness care is important, especially if you’re sick. But the way to keep people healthier longer is to ensure that they have a decent income, a roof over their heads, healthy food, a good education, a sound physical environment and sense of belonging.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, pharmaceutical, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Putting values into practice on pharmacare will come at a cost
Friday, June 14th, 2019
The catch is that there would be a massive shift of drug costs from private plans to public plans, an “incremental public cost” of $15.3-billion… Practically, it also means the feds would have to raise taxes by at least $15-billion a year. That, not poor values, is the single biggest impediment to national pharmacare. The other related hurdle is that a national plan would require an unprecedented level of federal-provincial-territorial co-operation.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Is beer in corner stores bad for our health?
Tuesday, June 4th, 2019
One thing that is clear from research is that the greatest impact on alcohol consumption comes from pricing policies. The cheaper alcohol is, the more people consume. Yet we don’t talk about the benefits of high taxes or floor prices. That’s why buck-a-beer policies and rhetoric should concern us much more than where products are sold.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Bedlam over beds: We can no longer ignore our long-term-care crisis
Tuesday, May 28th, 2019
In Ontario … the wait list for long-term care is a staggering 34,000 people… Long-term care is a $70-billion-a-year business but consumers – and government in particular – can be parsimonious in what they are willing to pay to care for individuals… Far too many Canadians learn the hard way that long-term care is not only costly, but there isn’t much government support… most long-term care is paid out-of-pocket.
Tags: housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Should we cover the health bills of snowbirds and cross-border shoppers?
Tuesday, April 30th, 2019
Anyone who is foolish enough to travel without first purchasing private health insurance faces the prospect of catastrophic medical bills, with or without this program. The OOC program is also highly inefficient. A lot of time, energy and money is spent making piddling payments: There are about 88,000 claims a year, and the average reimbursement is $127. Put another way, it costs $2.8-million to pay $9-million in claims and those payments cover less than 5 per cent of travellers’ medical bills.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s response to the opioid crisis? Offer less help, and fewer answers
Monday, April 1st, 2019
Using Orwellian doublespeak – plus a dash of Trumpian random capitalization – the government was not announcing that it was “continuing to build a connected mental health and addictions treatment system”, but rather that it was cutting the legs from under four badly-needed overdose prevention sites, rejecting two others, and continuing to drag its feet on funding of additional sites.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Tilting at windmills won’t solve our health-care woes
Monday, February 4th, 2019
Almost all health services are contracted out to private providers – doctors (most of whom are corporations), hospitals (which are not-for-profit corporations), pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers (for-profit corporations), home care and long-term care facilities (a mix of non-profit and for-profit corporations) and so on…. we have the least-universal universal health-insurance system in the world. More than 30 per cent of care is paid for privately.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Sex-ed critics fear that it may ‘give kids ideas.’ But that would be a good thing.
Tuesday, January 15th, 2019
The fundamental complaint of those who oppose modernizing sex-ed seems to be that it will “give kids ideas” – in other words, that teaching about sexuality will lead to sexual experimentation… Parents absolutely have a right to inculcate values on their offspring. But that does not extend to imposing ignorance on others. That is especially true because we know that unawareness and naïveté do not prevent young people from having sex – it simply makes them more likely to make poor choices.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Following New Zealand’s lead on generic drugs would cut costs, study show
Friday, September 28th, 2012
Sep. 28 2012
Ontario could save an additional $250-million a year if it changed the way it buys generic drugs, and nationally, that figure could hit $1-billion… [by] switching to a tendering system under which generic manufacturers would bid to offer the best price to the drug plans that provide prescription medications to seniors and social assistance recipients.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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