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Don’t have private insurance? You’re still paying for others who do — you deserve better care

Saturday, November 23rd, 2024

Health care in Canada is universal for only two things, doctors and hospitals. For everything else, from psychology to prescription drugs, care depends on your private insurance or ability to pay… public subsidization occurs through an income tax exemption. Specifically, on an employer’s contribution to private health insurance premiums… What if instead, $4 billion of public subsidies to private insurance were used to support universal pharmacare, beyond diabetes and contraceptive care?

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Protecting public health care from private investors

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024

In Canada, a single private equity firm already owns the largest national network of independent surgical centres — 53 operating rooms spread across 14 centres — in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C… Approximately 90 per cent are publicly funded through partnerships with provincial health systems… Should profit-driven investors own health care facilities?

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The answer is clear: we can’t afford privatized health care

Thursday, August 24th, 2023

… lots of other countries have a blended system. In fact, so does Canada. But when we look deeper, we see that we spend less on our public health system — and more out-of-pocket and privately than most of our peers. As a share of all health spending, Canada allocates 75 per cent as public investment. How does that compare? Canada is a standout Scrooge.

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Canada is failing to meet the moment on the cost of medication

Saturday, March 11th, 2023

They have threatened repeatedly that these reforms will halt the entrance of new drugs into the Canadian market and… will hamper “the country’s ability to attract investment to our life-sciences sector.”… threats like this are only rhetoric, not reality. Britain, Sweden and France have all achieved lower drug prices while maintaining higher rates of research and development than Canada.

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Solidarity after the Pandemic: Basic Income or Basic Services?

Monday, July 27th, 2020

A move towards meaningful universal basic services is no small task. Canadians are ready. Only 12 per cent of us think we will return to our pre-pandemic way of life. As Nik Nanos has put it, the old status quo of consumerism and individualism is dead… Instead of going “back to normal”, leaders can enable greater health and resilience for all by investing in national basic services to strengthen our social infrastructure.

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A rescue package includes expanding medicare

Wednesday, March 25th, 2020

… as we are seeing an unprecedented collective effort to protect Canadians in the acute phase of this crisis, we also have an opportunity to ensure that every person living in Canada has access to the essential medications and dental care they need, regardless of employment status, to protect them against ongoing and future instability… On dental care, Canada has one of the least accessible systems in the developed world. Only 5 per cent of all spending on dental care is publicly funded

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