Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
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Social workers applaud court ruling [refugee health coverage]
Despite repeated allegations by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander, it is not a cost saving to treat “seriously ill” refugees in emergency departments. There is no evidence that bogus refugee claims have dropped since this policy was put in place; and it defies reason to contend that Canadians have inequitable access to health care as compared to refugees… The Harper government… must resist its repeated pattern of appealing to a higher court to deny services to vulnerable populations.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, immigration, standard of living
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Important child-health bill died with Ontario’s election call
… sometimes stuff that really matters gets blown away in the political whirlwind, and risks being forgotten. That is the case with Bill 135, also known as Ryan’s Law (Ensuring Asthma-Friendly Schools)… not allowing students to carry essential medications like asthma puffers, Epi-Pens, insulin, blood products, anti-anxiety meds and so on – is all too common in Canadian schools… The real tragedy here is the foot-dragging that has gone about this issue for a generation.
Tags: Health, youth
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Ontario must address dental care for low-income kids
Hygienists examined nearly 220,000 students and designated 44 per cent of the schools “high risk” because of the rotting state of children’s teeth. What a shameful example of an antiquated and inadequate system… the focus should be on greater access to public dental health care for children and low-income working adults… that’s the position of the Canadian Paediatric Society, which has recommended that dental care get the same universal access as all other treatments that fall under the Canadian Health Act.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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How to deliver on the promise of medicare
I see three big ideas out there that could raise the bar for the health of Canadians in the next decade. The first is to improve access to prescription medications… The second big idea flows from a campaign called Choosing Wisely… Too many Canadians are harmed every year by inappropriate, wasteful and often harmful tests and prescriptions… Third, we need to acknowledge that health is about more than just health care… we need to attack the causes of ill health. Income is the most important predictor of health
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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Barrier-free access to health-care a lost dream
For a quarter of a century every royal commission, public inquiry or think tank that has examined medicare has issued the same warning: Medically necessary drugs will soon become unaffordable. They were right… Governments are pushing patients out of hospitals faster, saddling them (except those on social assistance and old age security) with the cost of their own prescriptions. What this means is that the core principle of medicare — that every Canadian should have equal access to health care regardless of wealth — is deteriorating.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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The health accord was a ‘fix’ we must not repeat
After a decade of health-care budgets rising in the range of 7 per cent… governments finally have wrestled this down to about 2.5 per cent. Another health accord indexed at 6 per cent would inflate the increases again. Most of it would go to wages and other benefits for health-care employees, who grabbed a disproportionate amount of the health-accord money the first time.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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Why a two-tiered system won’t solve our health care woes
… public insurance… has left large holes in both coverage and financing. We continue to exclude prescription drugs from our basket of medically necessary goods. Secondly, we continue to allow for regressive subsidies through our tax code for employer provided health insurance… we don’t pay tax on the benefit the way we do with wages.
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health
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Why Canadians can expect more shortages of generic drugs
Almost all of the drugs in short supply are generics, older, and less expensive because their patents have expired. No one is measuring the extent of these shortages in Canada. No legislation has been passed to mandate notification. No leaders are trying to uncover its international and economic causes… In short, the government of Canada is trying its best to ignore the drug shortage problem. When pressed, it blames the provinces.
Tags: globalization, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Cutting refugee health care a false saving
Ottawa’s cutbacks have exposed Canadians to health risks the government did not anticipate and has not acknowledged. Infectious diseases, wiped out long ago in this country, could make a comeback if refugees are left untreated… the cost of cutting off access to health care could quickly overtake the savings. Bill C-31 prevents doctors from treating diseases in their early stages when they can be cured or managed… Most emergency wards don’t turn away uninsured patients. But the provinces have to pay their bills.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, immigration, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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Tax hike on tobacco could save 25,000 lives
If Flaherty wants the gold medal for tobacco control then he should announce that every year for the next five years the street price per pack will rise by at least 10 per cent — or double his recent announcement. This will have the net impact of getting smokers to quit now… Every year, tobacco still kills about 17,000 Canadians before age 70 and remains a leading cause of mortality in Canada, responsible for more deaths than obesity or binge alcohol drinking.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living, tax
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