Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Despite spending billions, Ontario is failing to solve family doctor shortage
Thursday, November 5th, 2026
Ontario outputs 775 family medicine graduates annually, but given that half opt out of comprehensive care, it leaves 387 new family doctors. Given that 500 family doctors retire each year, the province is left with a net loss of 113 family physicians annually… Solving the primary care crisis is impossible without accurate data… The lack of disclosure on these fundamental points is concerning… It’s time the Ministry of Health released the data. All of it.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 14 Comments »
Despite spending billions, Ontario is failing to solve family doctor shortage
Thursday, November 5th, 2026
The math is brutal: Ontario outputs 775 family medicine graduates annually, but given that half opt out of comprehensive care, it leaves 387 new family doctors. Given that 500 family doctors retire each year, the province is left with a net loss of 113 family physicians annually… The lack of disclosure on these fundamental points is concerning. Taxpayers paid $3.4 billion for Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan. It’s time the Ministry of Health released the data.
Tags: featured, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Why Ontario says it’s on track to connect every Ontarian to a family doctor by 2029
Tuesday, October 27th, 2026
So far, more than 300 new and expanded primary care teams will connect some 800,000 patients by the end of the current fiscal year. In 2027-28 and 2028-29, the government is projecting it will be able to attach more patients — some 1.2 million — to primary care teams than has happened so far… those “ambitious targets” come down to clinicians and administrators in the system learning and improving their community outreach.
Tags: featured, Health, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | 29 Comments »
Not adding up: Surgical and diagnostic privatization in Ontario
Thursday, October 15th, 2026
The Ontario government’s policy direction favours for-profit—rather than public—delivery of surgeries and medical imaging… If the privatization of surgeries and diagnostic procedures was sound health care policy, then the evidence would support this direction—but it does not… Instead, the provincial government should… Stop privatizing surgeries and medical imaging; Immediately increase public hospital funding and service capacity; and, Commit to evidence-based public system improvement strategies.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 35 Comments »
Drug company promotion negatively affects how doctors prescribe: Insights from a new Cochrane review
Friday, October 9th, 2026
… pharmaceutical promotion must be addressed as a commercial determinant of health — a key pathway through which corporations negatively impact public health… The medical community and governments can no longer ignore the consequences of the promotion of medicines on prescribing. It is time for strong concrete action to be taken to put an end to the way that companies are allowed to influence doctors.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »
How Ontario’s private clinics are draining taxpayer dollars and staff from public health care
Thursday, October 1st, 2026
Funding private clinics drains our public system, poaching staff and siphoning taxpayer dollars from front-line care. If interprofessional health teams are to succeed, the province must guarantee competitive salaries to staff them. Nurse practitioners need immediate provincial funding… Private clinics cost Ontario more, threaten patient safety and increase public wait times. They erode equity, accessibility and universality — the very foundation of the Canada Health Act.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | 8 Comments »
Why anxiety and mood disorders are skyrocketing in Canada — and who is being hit the hardest
Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
In the past decade, we’ve seen the internet transform the way people, especially youth, connect and spend time with each other. It’s led to growing social isolation, fewer in-person events and less physical activity; a recent report from Mental Health Research Canada linked extended screen time and negative online experiences with higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among Canadian youth. At the same time, the world is in a period of growing uncertainty… we’re also seeing greater socioeconomic disparity and uncertainty over time…
Tags: mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »
The predictable consequence to the gaps in our health funding? Private spending keeps growing faster than public
Tuesday, August 18th, 2026
Bilateral “Aging With Dignity“ agreements have earmarked funding for home, community and long-term care, allowing for valuable investments in capacity, staff wages and infrastructure. But public coverage to directly displace household spending is nowhere to be found… This fragmentation carries with it significant costs, including duplicated administration across thousands of private insurers, weaker collective bargaining power over drug prices and coverage gaps that push some patients toward hospitalization when they can’t afford medication.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | 1 Comment »
When politicians tell us health-care spending is unsustainable, they never seem to mention this
Monday, August 17th, 2026
… the single largest private-spending category in Canada is prescription drugs. We remain the only high-income country in the world whose universal healthcare system lacks a universal drug plan…. the notion that our health-care system is at risk because governments are spending too much is misleading in a country where seniors cover the cost of long-term care beds, parents pay out of pocket for their children’s dental work and patients spend too much on the medications they need to be healthy.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | 4 Comments »
Ontario got $3.2 billion for health care. What did patients get?
Thursday, August 13th, 2026
The Ford government spent a record $111.9 million to advertise in 2024—25. Yet its public agreement update does not give Ontarians a provider-level accounting of where the $3.2 billion in federal health funding went or what each investment delivered… Ontarians have a right to know how federal and provincial health dollars are spent and what public services, shorter waits or better access those dollars deliver.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Debates | 2 Comments »
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