Archive for the ‘Health Debates’ Category
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Convenient access to alcohol is going to cost us
Wednesday, June 12th, 2024
… while alcohol sales in 2020 put $3.2 billion into Ontario’s coffers, they came at a cost of $7.1 billion. That left the province with an alcohol deficit of $3.9 billion. Health care accounted for $2.3 billion. The rest went to servicing alcohol-related criminal-justice and lost production costs. These figures reflect a deficit capped by the limited number of LCBO and Beer Stores, a limit that will soon cease to exist.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology
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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?
Tags: budget, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
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Expanded prescribing powers for nurses makes sense
Tuesday, March 12th, 2024
Expanding prescribing powers to nurses will not present the same kinds of concerns as expanding to pharmacists did. Nurses work in clinics that have privacy, and they lack potential financial conflicts of interest. Plus, they’re currently limited to very routine prescriptions, so the danger of a blown diagnosis is minimal… the goal is not leaving any to suffer for lack of access to a safe, proven treatment. And that is absolutely the status quo that already exists today for millions.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
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Pharma-Scare Tactics: Dispensing Garbage Takes
Tuesday, March 5th, 2024
There is nothing to prevent provinces from going above and beyond a federal program, there is nothing to prevent private plans from going above and beyond a federal program. The idea that increasing public funding to health care would somehow limit access to coverage is illogical and not borne out by the evidence.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
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Against incredible odds, Canada is getting universal pharmacare
Monday, March 4th, 2024
… this week, the tide seems to have finally turned in favour of the people — with the introduction of a pharmacare bill that defies decades of industry pushback… For years, these powerful industries marshalled enormous resources to derail progress on a national pharmacare plan, pressuring the government to reject the principle of universality, keep our current mixed public-private system in place, and limit drug coverage to the uninsured.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Can Ontario Fix the Shortage of Personal Support Workers?
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
The Ontario government earmarked almost $5 billion in funding over four years to help long-term care homes hire and retain care staff. It’s since added additional millions in incentives to attract thousands to become personal support workers over the next few years… Podcast video Episode: Can New Incentives Help Attract PSWs in Ontario?
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living, women
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Canada needs a national system for cancer clinical trials
Monday, February 19th, 2024
Clinical trials are the most effective means of ensuring we have better cancer treatments. A national cancer clinical trial system, with education and training, streamlined ethics, and support for initiatives to address genomic testing for trials, and reduce regulatory and other trial burdens, would be an investment in our health-care system.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Why the surge in medically assisted deaths?
Tuesday, February 6th, 2024
… assisted deaths in Canada grew by an average of 31.1 per cent each year between 2019 and 2022… of those who received MAID in 2022, 17 per cent cited loneliness or isolation as one cause of their suffering… Since people with mental illness are at high risk of homelessness, this could exacerbate the difficulty they have in accessing critical health services, including those of a palliative nature.
Tags: Health, mental Health, rights, standard of living
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It’s time for OHIP to cover all forms of prescription contraception
Tuesday, January 30th, 2024
Who’s left out? Anyone older than 25 without a private health-care plan, temporary foreign workers in between contracts, people with refugee status, international students… In short: people with shifting economic and living realities and those for whom an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy would likely be especially destabilizing… Control over one’s own fertility is inherently tied to human dignity. A money-saving, life-improving policy that supports this should be a no-brainer.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, women
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The risks of ending safer supply drugs programs
Sunday, January 28th, 2024
21 of 24 federally funded safer supply programs are in jeopardy, as their contracts will expire in March. And with just two months until then, the feds have given no indication that they’ll renew their commitment to any of them. Ottawa’s silence on the matter is all the more disturbing given the recent, dramatic increase in overdose deaths — and the mounting evidence in support of safer supply.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
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