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Ontario stands to save $2 billion in drug reforms
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
August 3, 2011
Ontario should save $2 billion over the next three years as 44 medications — from cholesterol fighting Crestor to the targeted cancer therapy Gleevec — come off patent and the fruits of drug reform take hold. Savings made will be poured back into reducing the ballooning $47 billion health-care budget and buying new medications under the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan… Drugs make up about 10 per cent of the province’s $47 billion health spending, and 32 per cent of the $25 billion Ontarians spend on private health care.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
eHealth: Half of Ontario health records to be electronic by 2013
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
May 11, 2011
In two years, half of all Ontario residents will be able to walk into a health clinic and have a doctor access their up-to-date personal electronic health record. Ontario is actually awash with electronic records, but the problem has been that few systems can share information, Reed said… The entire province will eventually be covered in three regional hubs — one in the GTA, the others in northeastern and southwestern Ontario.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario boots vaccine program
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
May 5, 2011
Ontario newborns will soon be able to receive a new, drinkable vaccine to protect them from diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. Nearly 140,000 infants will benefit from the oral rotavirus vaccine… Beginning this August, the government will offer two new vaccines — one for rotavirus and the other a combined chicken pox and measles-mumps-rubella vaccine known as MMRV. The government says the vaccine change will save families up to $350 per person.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | 3 Comments »
900 more Ontario schools to offer full-day kindergarten in 2012: McGuinty
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
March 2, 2011
The province has named the additional 900 Ontario schools that will offer full-day kindergarten for the 2012-13 school year… “We have enjoyed some very real successes — we have more teachers, smaller classes we have peace and stability and measurable improvements when it comes to results,” [Premier McGuinty] said in an election campaign-type announcement… The Progressive Conservatives say McGuinty can’t reach his goal of all young students in full-day by September 2014 and say a Tory government would look at what Ontario families can afford before agreeing to expand.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ontario expands coverage for compassionate drug access
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
January 21, 2011
The province will now consider requests to cover drugs in cases where a patient with a rare disease has been urgently hospitalized due to an immediate life-, limb- or organ-threatening condition… The government receives about 250 applications each year for compassionate access to prohibitively expensive drugs for rare disorders. The policy change is meant to equalize every patient’s chance, regardless of where they live, to access the medication they need.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Union ads attack McGuinty, Hudak for backing tax cuts
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Jan 19 2011
OPSEU president Warren Thomas said the union spent $100,000 on the ads because members “want corporate tax cuts to be part of the election campaign. “If it gets people’s attention and gets people thinking and talking about it, that is a good thing,” said Thomas “Humour always paves the way.” The website features a running tally of hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on corporate tax cuts and boasts a shop for gear such as emblazoned boxer shorts, pet bowls, baby jumpers, mugs and T-shirts.
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario expands mediation services to 49 courts
Monday, December 13th, 2010
Dec 12 2010
Easing the emotional burdens of divorce while unclogging the court system is behind the expansion of mediation services across Ontario, says Attorney General Chris Bentley. The province is expanding a successful mediation pilot project, first started in Milton and Brampton, to all 49 court locations that hear family cases by summer 2011. For years, Ontario’s top lawyers and judges have urged that there be better ways to handle family break-ups and child custody agreements other than in a confrontational way decided in a courtroom by a judge.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 1 Comment »
Ex-StatsCan chief to lead Ontario’s welfare reform
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Nov 30 2010
The panel will make targeted recommendations to overhaul Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. It will have the support of a special commission, made up of bureaucrats and poverty advisers… not only look at social assistance but how does it interact with things like employment insurance, the Ontario Student Assistance Program and job programs… Anti-poverty groups say current social assistance incomes have the same purchasing power as they did in 1967. The panel begins work in January and has 18 months to report back with a detailed plan…
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
No full-day kindergarten for First Nations kids
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
October 11, 2010
First Nations children who attend schools on reserves are being left out of the province’s innovative all-day kindergarten plan…. First Nations students already face hurdles others students do not and are among the province’s most vulnerable children, education experts say… The investment required to support full day kindergarten programs on reserves need to come from the federal government, according to Erin Moroz, a spokesperson for Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s local health networks must go, opposition says
Monday, August 16th, 2010
Aug 16 2010
Faced with a bloated nearly $40 billion health system widely criticized by being too centrally controlled, Smitherman decided to follow British Columbia and Alberta’s lead by taking decision-making power out of the hands of the provincial government and giving it to local health groups. But instead of the decentralized dream, some say what Smitherman created was just another bureaucratic layer — one the Star has learned spent $80 million in 2009/10 on operation expenses such as wages, office rent and equipment.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, participation
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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