Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
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Time for trade ministers to think about public health
Two key chapters of public health concern regard investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), and intellectual property rights (IPRs).
ISDS allows foreign corporations to sue a government for regulations that they believe expropriate or diminish the value of their investments… ISDS disputes can also delay new public health regulations since their resolution can take years and countries will avoid introducing new policies until the outcome.
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Canadian health care better than Obamacare
In Canada, everyone is covered automatically at birth — everybody in, nobody out / … health-care coverage stays with you for your entire life / … you can freely choose your doctors and hospitals and keep them / … the health-care system is funded by income, sales and corporate taxes that, combined, are much lower than what Americans pay in premiums / … there are no complex hospital or doctor bills / … simplicity leads to major savings in administrative costs and overhead.
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, Health, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Why Canadians outlive Americans, and why we shouldn’t be so satisfied
There are clear links between mortality rates and the way countries invest in health care and improving social conditions… Population health approaches to improving social conditions, as well as public health prevention and health promotion measures… have helped to reduce both chronic disease and acute illness… it’s not only spending on health care that makes a large difference to health outcomes. In our study, a country’s social investments contributed to significant increases in longevity.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
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Capturing Value From Health Technologies In Lean Times
In “Capturing Value from Health Technologies in Lean Times,” authors Ake Blomqvist, Colin Busby and Don Husereau argue healthcare policymakers should make greater use of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), a policy tool that can help them balance demand and supply pressures for new technologies within a health-system budget.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, Health, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Wealth begets health: Why universal medical care only goes so far
Low-income earners are less likely to have a family doctor or receive early treatment for health problems, even though care is available. Their poorer health takes a toll on the economy through lost productivity, and adds costs to an already overburdened health-care system… “The biggest health problem in Canada is not heart disease or cancer or mental health, it’s inequality”… Virtually every measure of population health – from child mortality to rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and traumatic injury – is worse in poor areas than in wealthier ones.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Why breastfeeding breaks pay off
In Canada, there is no guaranteed right for working mothers to take short breaks from work to breastfeed or express milk… Canada is an outlier — paid breastfeeding breaks are guaranteed in 130 countries and unpaid breaks in an additional seven. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, even the U.S. makes this guarantee… Breastfeeding is an important health-promoting step both for women’s health and that of their infants
Tags: child care, Health, ideology, rights, women
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It’s time to re-examine the social factors that affect our health
… we too often insist the social factors that affect health, such as poverty or inequalities, are too complex or expensive to tackle… First, we have to see beyond health care to what really makes us ill or well — income and its distribution, education, employment, social supports, housing, nutrition, and the wider environment — the social determinants of health… Upstream is a movement to change the current conversation.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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Poverty a barrier to good health, says report
The Conference Board of Canada gave Canada a rank of “C” when it comes to child poverty and placed it 15th out of 17 peer countries. Only Italy and the United States have a lower ranking. About one in seven Canadian children live in poverty and the rate has been on the increase since the mid-90s… Drawing attention to the role poverty plays in health outcomes is part of the role of the CMA… About one in five health care dollars is spent addressing problems related to poverty
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Tackle poverty to cut health bill
Imagine living in a country where your government not only prioritizes tax dollars to improve the health and well-being of your children today, but invests your money to reduce social problems and costs down the road as well… Overall GDP growth isn’t the key. UNICEF concludes, “There is not a strong relationship between per capita growth and overall child wellbeing. For instance, Slovenia ranks higher than Canada.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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Why Austerity Kills
Investing in public health is a wise choice in good times and an urgent necessity in the worst of times. Had austerity been organized like a clinical trial, it would have been discontinued, given evidence of its deadly side effects. There is an alternative choice that we found in the historical data and through the present recessions, that when we place people and their health at the center of economic recovery, it can help get our economy back on track faster and yield lasting dividends to our society.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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