Archive for the ‘Health Delivery System’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
New delivery models, not talk, are key to health-care reform
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012
1 August 2012
Although per-capita health costs are already relatively low compared with other provinces, a structural deficit is forcing Ontario to try to drive them lower still… Among the advantages of a federation in which our challenges are similar, but not exactly the same, is that we can learn from each other. When one province experiments with new delivery models, others can be counted on to take notes, if not to outright cheer them on.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Provinces must stand together on drug purchases
Friday, August 10th, 2012
31 July 2012
As the Council of the Federation’s own report suggests, bulk purchasing is not an option any more, it is a necessity… Every new drug in Canada should be purchased through a national bulk-purchasing agency to maximize savings for the benefit of all Canadians. In fact, the smartest path would be to establish a national drug plan with no deductible or co-insurance payment, which will ensure equity of funding and access to essential medicines for all Canadians.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Premiers forge own health-care path
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
26 July 2009
We run the health-care system,” said Mr. Ghiz, adding that the “only thing” the federal government does is “provide a cheque for about 20 per cent of the costs.”… Late last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper granted provinces more autonomy to reshape health care as Ottawa moves to end 50 years of using its funding power to coerce provinces to adopt national standards. Mr. Harper essentially asked provinces, with some federal guidance, to do as they see fit in their own jurisdictions while inviting them to co-operate in establishing national benchmarks for delivering health services.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Premiers’ health-care report is just the start of what’s needed
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
26 July 2012
The premiers’ long-awaited health-care report… outlines several helpful measures to save money. Among them are identifying three to five generic drugs that provinces can purchase in bulk by this fall; harmonizing guidelines for the treatment of chronic illnesses; and sharing training capacity and work force projections, so they’re not stealing nurses or doctors from each other…. the provinces also need to establish whether they are getting value for money before the system becomes unsustainable.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
It’s time the provinces were brought to account on health-care wait times
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
Jul 13, 2012
… if wait times were unacceptable in 2005, they are no less so today… In only two provinces, Ontario and B.C., are wait times shorter now than they were at the time of Chaoulli. (In Quebec, they are almost a week longer.) In every province, they are substantially longer than they were in the mid-1990s… the solution… is to make room for competition within the single-payer system — allowing private clinics, for example, so long as they are paid for out of public funds — before we start looking at parallel private insurance systems, with all the potential for gaming they entail.
Tags: budget, Health, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Physician, restrain thyself
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Jul. 11 2012
From 1998 to 2008, physician compensation grew faster than the price of other services purchased by governments, and faster than the average wages of other groups in the health and social services sector… In Ontario… remuneration went up sharply as the government tried to entice family practitioners to group themselves in teams and offered incentives for this change. It was inevitable that these very generous increases could not continue.
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario’s doctors should be at the negotiating table, not in the courtroom
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Jul. 10 2012.
Ontario is expected to be in the red until at least 2017, and doctors’ fees account for roughly 10 per cent of the province’s total program spending. So this spring’s cost-cutting measures, targeted heavily at a few specialist groups, were only the first round. If the OMA were to adopt a more constructive approach and return to the table, it could at least help shape future funding decisions… those who benefited from generous settlements in the past need to accept new realities, and make the best of them. Lawyering up is not the answer.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
India is showing Canada the way with action on health care
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Jul. 09 2012
Canada has been talking about national pharmacare for decades. There has been little action and an endless litany of excuses, foremost that the constitutional division of powers is an impediment. It’s hard to imagine that our constitutional quirks are harder to overcome than the complex regional, religious and political divisions in India. Yet India is forging ahead with fundamental health reform to ensure a healthy population and a healthier economy, while Canada continues to futz around.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Innovation in health care critical in times of austerity
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Jul. 09 2012
Canada is the fifth highest spender of health as a share of its gross domestic product [11.4 per cent in 2010] and seventh highest on health expenditures per capita [$4,445 U.S. in 2010] – both higher than the OECD average of 34 member countries. And yet for all that money, there are still troubling access issues… The system’s 1950s acute-care model is not equipped to deal with the burgeoning group of aging patients whose multiple chronic conditions demand comprehensive care, not repeated physician visits in a fragmented system.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Market model flawed for health care
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
July 05, 2012
A new study conducted by the pharmaceutical company Novartis and McKinsey and Co. shows a stunning difference among countries with regard to health-care efficiency… overwhelmingly, the most effective care for diseases comes from countries with much lower costs… Health care is very complex. Only at a systemic level can you figure out what works best based on the evidence, and what procedures and treatments are not worth the money
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Recent Comments