Health Debates « Social Policy in Ontario

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Federal health minister dings Ontario for private billing

Saturday, March 11th, 2023

Federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced Friday that he will be reducing the Canada Health Transfer to eight provinces, including Ontario, for breaches of federal policy regarding billing patients for medically necessary costs… Further, Duclos signalled that Friday’s announcement will not be the end of the measures the federal government is considering to reinforce the public aspect of Canada’s health-care system.

Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
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How much money does Canada’s health system really need?

Friday, March 3rd, 2023

Internationally, Canada spends more per capita on health care than many other OECD countries, but performs very poorly. … other than for long-term care, there is no need for health-care costs to rise dramatically over the coming decades – not if there are appropriate structural reforms and more integrated management.

Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
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The truth (and the costs) behind public payment for private surgeries

Tuesday, February 21st, 2023

While the provinces should be applauded for funding more surgical procedures, why restrict new funding solely to private enterprises, when many public hospitals have capacity to provide more surgery with additional funding? There is no compelling business reason, especially if both private and public facilities will be paid at the same rate.

Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
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Canada’s vanishing health care crisis

Saturday, February 18th, 2023

Health care spending is actually declining this year on average, once population growth is factored in… Only the three Maritime provinces are planning to boost health care spending faster than the increase in the federal transfer… the contrast between the urgent rhetoric of the premiers and the tepid growth of spending underscores, again, the need to firmly place the responsibility for health care funding on the provinces.

Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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No Strings Attached: Canada’s health care deal lacks key conditions

Friday, February 17th, 2023

… despite provincial ad campaigns that show destitute doctors and nurses begging for federal funding, the question of who is responsible for the crisis in Canadian health care is not so clear cut. Health care is a provincial jurisdiction and the big provinces are flush with cash. It’s not money stopping them from fixing their systems, it’s political will.

Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Queen’s Park must pull its weight on health care spending

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

… the FAO says. Under current plans, funding for health care over the next three years will be $5 billion less than what is needed just to maintain existing programs… it now appears that any bilateral deal between Ontario and Canada will require that the province at least maintain current spending levels (presumably adjusted for inflation). That’s not a high bar. Ottawa could do more, especially when it comes to blocking provincial plans to siphon public dollars into private profits.

Tags: budget, featured, Health, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
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A courageous plan required for primary care reform

Monday, February 6th, 2023

… two essential building blocks of the people-centred health reform we favour are timely access to primary care and the use of data. Data is a key tool to empower the users of the system and to support health care workers who need to care for people as they move through the system, from primary care office to hospital to home care and back… Even more than money, we need… Courage to make transformative changes. That starts with the foundation of the health system, which is primary care.

Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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Premier Doug Ford should explain why he underfunds public health care

Thursday, January 26th, 2023

If Ontario just spent the average of what the other provinces have spent on health care per capita over the past five years, we’d be spending an additional $7.2 billion this year — more than enough to properly pay our beleaguered nurses, lure thousands more nurses to Ontario and bring back into use countless hospital operating rooms all over the province idled by years of budget cuts.

Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
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Real health innovation means investing where health begins

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

According to health science, federal Liberal investments in child care, housing, poverty reduction, and climate action ARE investments in health. Federal leadership has been necessary because provinces have been retreating from investing in the social conditions that shape health and well-being. Any additional federal transfers for health ought to encourage provinces to achieve a better balance in their social and medical spending in order to promote health.

Tags: economy, Health, ideology, standard of living
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Doug Ford’s private surgery plan is driven by ideology not innovation

Sunday, January 22nd, 2023

… the government will expect the private facilities to take it upon themselves to prevent the luring of medical professionals from the public system. The foxes will be charged with guarding the henhouse… When the auditor general can find widespread abuse in the current limited private surgery sector, we can only shudder at what she’s likely to see after the government implements its plan to vastly expand private, for-profit surgeries.