Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
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Ottawa, doctors in faceoff over federal role in health care
Sunday, August 26th, 2012
13 August 2012
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told 258 delegates to the CMA’s annual general council meeting that she would not “dictate” to the provinces how they should deliver health care or set priorities… According to the Ekos poll, commissioned by the CMA, 87% said the federal government should pay more attention to health care. Sixty per cent said the federal government has a key role to play in enforcing the Canada Health Act and setting national standards.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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‘Real inequalities’ a threat to Medicare’s mission, incoming CMA chief says
Saturday, August 25th, 2012
12 August 2012
“We need equitable distribution of health care resources and services so that… everyone has equal access to important health-care services,” Dr. Reid said. Beyond pushing for universal access to essential medical care, she said she will use the CMA presidency to raise awareness about the role of the socio-economic determinants of health, and the need to focus on marginalized groups like aboriginal people, those with mental illness and the isolated elderly.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, Indigenous, mental Health, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Canada Health Transfer should ensure disabled persons’ needs addressed
Saturday, August 25th, 2012
13 August 2012
Time for Transformative Change, the Senate committee’s final report, embraced the recommendations of the national disability alliance by stating “that the federal, provincial and territorial governments ensure accountability measures be built into the Canada Health Transfer agreement to address the needs of disabled persons.” It is my hope that all Parliamentarians… explicitly embrace this recommendation as a principle that underpins a renewed Health Accord
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Fearing advocacy, Ottawa rejects HIV/AIDS funding proposals
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
6 August 2012
The HIV/AIDS Legal Network, whose mission is to promote the human rights of people living with or at risk of contracting the virus, has received a significant portion of its funding from Ottawa over its 20-year existence. But in this year’s round of funding applications, 16 of its 20 proposals were rebuffed. Fifteen of those were rejected citing an identical reason: “It was unclear from the details provided in the proposal whether the resource would be used for advocacy purposes, which is ineligible for funding,”
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, rights, standard of living
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For better cures, let’s do science differently
Saturday, August 18th, 2012
6 August 2012
How do we address our country’s astonishing need for improved diagnoses, treatments and cures for dementia given the snail-like pace with which current research practices deliver benefits to patients and spawn new companies and, with them, new jobs. The answer is by doing science differently… the consortium’s model emphasizes the support of platforms (e.g., imaging, genetics) used by researchers from different institutions. The end result: co-ordinated efforts, more patients in studies and novel investigations both within and across diseases.
Tags: budget, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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Private health care by stealth:
Friday, August 10th, 2012
30 July 2012
… there has never been any good evidence to suggest that user fees would do anything more than shift costs away from healthier and wealthier taxpayers to sicker and poorer users. In fact, there is no evidence at all that user fees reduce the unnecessary uses of health services. It is just as likely that “legitimate” users may delay seeking appropriate care until their conditions become more acute, more complicated and more expensive—on the public dime.
Tags: budget, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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Canada needs a new Health Accord to liberate health-care talent
Friday, August 10th, 2012
30 July 2012
The era of the omniscient independent practitioner is over… The practical question is whether the provinces will be able to clear the scope of practice gridlock entirely on their own, through multilateral consensus… If the public interest is to be served, there must be an honest broker to support and at times discipline the development of options, identify barriers to constructive change, invest in and sustain effort, and nudge the parties into a progressive consensus. That honest broker can only be the federal government…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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How medicare is morphing from ‘bare minimum’ to ‘best practices’
Friday, August 10th, 2012
26 July 2012
Most studies show our medicare is wasteful — not always healthful — compared with public systems across Europe… harvesting low-hanging fruit won’t get them to best practices, which requires rather more heavy lifting… Doctors take up one-quarter of all health expenditures in Ontario, about $48 billion, and roughly 42 per cent of all program spending in the province… provinces are also keen to replicate Ontario’s experience in pushing down the price of generic drugs
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health
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There is no health without mental health
Thursday, August 9th, 2012
26 July 2012
Mental illness and addictions have a staggering impact on individuals and on society. This year, 6.7 million Canadians will feel the pain of that impact. The economic costs of these illnesses are over $50 billion annually or 2.8 per cent of GDP. The Public Health Agency of Canada recently reported that among the seven major health conditions, mental illnesses had the highest total direct care costs in Canada and were the third leading contributor to the total annual economic burden of the seven conditions.
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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Harper’s anti-drug strategy gets a little less compassionate
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
25 July 2012
Despite Harper’s early emphasis on balance… the planning and priorities report tabled with the federal Treasury Board for the next five years reveals deep cuts in Health Canada’s budget for drug treatment—but hefty increases in budgets for drug enforcement by police and prosecutors… The government has done nothing to publicize the anti-drug policy’s second five-year phase, much less drawn attention to the apparent shift in funding priorities… So you now have programs that have proven their efficacy, but there are no resources to sustain them…
Tags: crime prevention, Health, ideology
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