Archive for the ‘Health History’ Category
‘The greatest Machiavellian fraud’: Ontario’s bitter fight over what became OHIP
Wednesday, May 10th, 2023
… the provincial government kept sending signals that it wanted no part of the federal medicare plan scheduled to begin in mid-1968. In November 1967, provincial treasurer Charles MacNaughton mused about opting out and using federal medicare contributions to tackle issues the Robarts government felt were more pressing, such as education and housing. A combination of OMSIP and existing private plans, many believed, was good enough for Ontarians.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, privatization
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Five things to know about health-care talks Tuesday between Trudeau, premiers
Monday, February 6th, 2023
… some sort of federal health transfer dates from 1957, when Ottawa offered 50-50 funding for health care to provinces that agreed to provide public hospital services based on national standards. It has evolved and changed at least five times since then, including splitting the federal share between cash and a transfer of tax points — when the federal government cut its income tax rates and the provinces could raise their own in exchange.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, Seniors, standard of living
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Looking forward into the past: Lessons for the future of Medicare on its 60th anniversary
Saturday, December 24th, 2022
The provincial government in Ontario operates a large network of not-for-profit community clinics… lacking explicit democratic co-operative control… it may be time for communities to… voice their desire in words and action for access to the kind of holistic care pioneered by the co-operative clinics. Maybe this time, policymakers will listen.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
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Why hasn’t medical care in Canada included teeth?
Saturday, November 12th, 2022
… when Canada’s Medical Care Act was passed in 1966, only physician services were covered — even though the 1964 Royal Commission on Health Services report (considered the blueprint for Canada’s universal health insurance program) had recommended free dentistry for all children and eventually for all adults. The Canada Dental Benefit, which received parliamentary approval on October 27, will provide free dental care for uninsured Canadians with an annual family income of less than $90,000, starting with children under 12 in December 2022.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
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Filling the gaps: Why Canada still needs a public dental health plan despite decades of medicare
Tuesday, April 26th, 2022
The Liberal government promised to explore universal dental care in its throne speech of December 2019, and in October 2020, the Parliamentary Budget Office costed a program to provide dental care to all Canadians with a household income of under $90,000, similar to what the Non-Insured Health Benefitsprogram provides for Indigenous people… Most recently, the Liberal government agreed to provide a denticare program, starting with children under 12 and expanding it until everyone with a household income of under $90,000 is covered…
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, youth
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When Canada was a world leader in vaccine research and production
Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
… scientists are permitted to take out patents on the products they develop (with our money), and then sell them to pharmaceutical manufacturers, who sell the products to the public — often at great profit. Even though our public investment paid for the original research, Canadians have no say over the products nor the price at which they are sold to us as consumers. Canada also has no share in the profits. We’ve ventured a long way, unfortunately, from the days when we had a publicly owned and medically innovative enterprise that dazzled on the world stage and kept Canadians at the front of the line for vaccines.
Tags: Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
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Completing the promise of Medicare
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
Because of COVID-19, millions more have now lost their jobs thereby losing access to private drug insurance programmes. If Canada already had universal Pharmacare, Canadians would be far better off in this current crisis… This begs the question of who is advocating for a national universal Pharmacare program within the current Liberal government… A coalition of the willing in Parliament, followed by a coalition of the willing among the provinces and territories that will eventually come to include them all.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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The public lab that could have helped fight COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
… our willingness to go along with the privatization cult in recent decades has left us weaker and less protected than we could be. Not only do we no longer have Connaught Labs, but Canada spends $1 billion a year funding basic medical research at Canadian universities, yet relies on the private marketplace to produce, control — and profit from — the resulting medical innovations… With a surge in future global pandemics expected, it might well be time to rethink Canada’s foolhardy attachment to the notion “the private sector always does things better.”
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
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Ontario’s new plan for health care echoes past prescriptions
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
Elliott is now promising “transformation” of the system. She will deliver “patient-centred care.” And she intends to move people through a “siloed” system “seamlessly.” That’s precisely the wording used by the previous Liberal health minister, Dr. Eric Hoskins… Connectivity can be a good thing but it is not a sure thing — it can’t conjure up co-ordination, efficiencies and extra beds on demand. Buzzwords are not benchmarks… the question is whether these reforms are truly transformational or merely aspirational.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
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Let’s not forget that our medicare system was also born of war
Tuesday, November 13th, 2018
Canada alone operated 10 large hospitals in England and France to tend to its wounded, along with 10 stationary hospitals and four casualty clearing stations. Back home, the federal government also took control of 11 hospitals for the care of returning soldiers, and built the first state-run hospital… It also fuelled political debates about the need for a “national sickness plan,” to extend public health insurance beyond veterans.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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