Andre Picard « Authors « Social Policy in Ontario

Health care: Parties set out their approaches

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

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

Friday, April 15th, 2011

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

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

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

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

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

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

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

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

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, Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »

EU trade deal could cost Canadian drug plans billions

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Feb. 07, 2011
Provisions in a new trade deal being negotiated between Canada and the European Union could add about $2.8-billion a year in costs to Canadian drug plans… The estimate includes $1.3-billion more for public drug plans and $1.5-billion for private drug plans… the Europeans have asked for three substantial changes in the laws and regulations that govern intellectual property protection related to brand-name drugs… designed to delay the arrival of copycat generic drugs on the market and, in turn, encourage brand-name companies to invest more in research and development.

Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »

Universal health care scores well, but don’t be deluded

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Feb. 03, 2011
That socioeconomic status and disease patterns are strongly associated in a gradient is well-established. But does medicare – universal access to health services – alter that association? The conclusion from the new research: not really… The poor visit physicians and hospitals more often not because it’s free but because they’re sicker. They have more diabetes, more heart attacks, more strokes. And much higher death rates… In other words, there is very little preventive health care going on even though medicare should lend itself to this approach.

Tags: featured, Health, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »

Time for a national immunization strategy, health officials say

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Dec. 06, 2010
As Ottawa and the provinces embark on negotiations to renew the Health Accord in 2014, they should take the opportunity to invest in a truly national vaccination strategy, public health leaders say… – A national immunization registry where there is a central record of all vaccines individuals have received – currently some provinces have registries but they are not linked… Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq hailed vaccination as one of the single most important health measures available.

Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »

Stop blaming seniors for soaring health costs

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Nov. 10, 2010
It is true too that per capita health spending increases steadily with age, from a low of $1,223 at age 5 to $3,772 at age… Looking at those numbers we assume, intuitively, that we are doomed. But let’s not forget that there are all kinds of cost drivers in our health system and an aging population is only one of them… the cost of treating the sickest seniors – those in hospital – has remained relatively stable over a long period. On the other hand, the use of health services by healthy seniors (those who live independently in the community) has ballooned.