Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
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The politics of Harper’s medicare decision
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Jan. 20, 2012
When Stephen Harper was campaigning for the first time, he proposed a Patient Wait Times Guarantee linked to federal money. Now, however, Mr. Harper is going to give money to the provinces (they got federal tax points for health care a long time ago, a transfer they never mention) without any strings, conditions or demands. It’ll be the first time since medicare began that a federal government has handed money over carte blanche. Broadly speaking, two reasons explain his decision – one theoretical, one political.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health
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The haves and have-nots of medicare
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Jan. 17, 2012
There’s an ominous new meaning for two-tier medicine in Canada: rather than one system for rich people and one for the poor, it will be one system for rich provinces and one for the poor… There isn’t a truly equal level of health care in Canada even now. Wealthy provinces have hospitals and programs that poorer ones can only envy. Wait times for certain procedures can vary widely between jurisdictions… The question is: will Ottawa’s new no-strings-attached funding proposal exacerbate the discrepancies in health care that already exist? And does Ottawa even care if it does?
Tags: budget, Health, rights, standard of living, tax
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Dalton McGuinty can’t play Captain Canada to rescue medicare
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Jan 14 2012
Flaherty’s diktat has sucked the air out of the premiers’ conferences because there is little left to fight about — except amongst themselves. A split has emerged between western premiers who deemed Ottawa’s offer reasonable and those who denounced it as wretched… Victoria can serve as a clearing house for “best practices” and interprovincial brainwaves on innovation, but it won’t provide any panaceas… McGuinty needs to get out in front of the funding challenges in his own backyard: highly paid doctors, a poorly integrated health care system, modest community care and meagre home-care programs.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Brad Wall prescribes collaborative federalism to improve health care
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Jan. 13, 2012
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is planning to push his provincial colleagues to band together and ask Ottawa for a health care innovation fund that would provide extra money for projects to improve patient care… he believes the federal government has left the door open to doing more on health care than it is currently offering… the Harper government’s “unilateral declaration” did not foster good will, but he and his officials are not dwelling on that. He said an innovation fund could also help the provinces set up electronic health records.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
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B.C. balks at federal health-funding plan
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Jan. 13, 2012
The package includes something the provinces have long asked for: No strings attached. But the money will be distributed on a per capita basis. Ms. Clark now says that formula needs to be age-adjusted to reflect the fact that seniors require more expensive health care… Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has warned that necessary innovations in home care for seniors and other health-care reforms will suffer if the federal government doesn’t help set national standards. Ms. Clark… will seek an agreement with fellow premiers to ask Ottawa for an additional pot of money to direct to health care innovations.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, standard of living
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Federal health role is about more than money
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Jan. 10, 2012
… known long-term funding and is more than provinces could have reasonably expected from the 2014 first ministers’ meeting. The principle behind the federal generosity is clear. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is taking Ottawa out of the health-care debate and ending the national discussion of health and health-care system issues that began with the original federal funding in the 1966 Medical Care Act and continued up to the 2004 wait times accord. But is this a good thing for Canada?… There are at least seven areas that require national policy leadership and federal attention:
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living
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Roy Romanow’s one-note tune on health care
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Jan 10, 2012
Mr. Romanow insisted that if the PM does not take an aggressive leadership role in talks about the future of medicare, public health care will weaken, private care will spread and the very fabric of our nation will be imperilled… But so what if the provinces don’t all offer identical services and delivery models? Let them devise blended public-private systems that work best for their residents or for their budgets — and let provincial governments live with the political consequences of those choices. How does that threaten “national unity”?
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Cuba does more in health at lower cost
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Jan. 7, 2012
With each passing year, our health-care system is becoming more like the American model. More investigations, diagnostics and surgeries are performed, with subsequent higher costs and poorer health outcomes… for 2009… Cuba spent about eight times less than Canada… on health care… the reasons for success include a health policy that emphasizes prevention over treatment, primary care instead of hospital care, co-ordinated provision of care, providing services in the community where people live, and active participation of residents in goal-setting and programming.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
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How to save medicare while saving money
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
Dec 21 2011
After working on two recent studies of health-care inefficiencies, Drummond’s reform agenda is no secret: reintegrating the system; and reallocating more money to health promotion, community care, home care and long-term care… Drummond has looked closely at the Saskatchewan experiment because it comes closest to a sustained transformation of government finances. It’s a lesson Duncan has also heeded. The treasurer has taken to telling his fellow Liberals in caucus and cabinet that the prairie New Democrats pioneered an ambitious reform model…
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
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Diagnosing changes to health-care funding
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
Dec 20 2011
The health transfer currently represents about 10 per cent of all federal spending. For the sake of comparison, health-care costs make up 42 per cent of the Ontario government’s total program spending… “About 80 per cent of what Ontario spends on health care comes from provincial taxes. So if the economy slows down and revenues decrease, that will be a much bigger deal than the size of the federal transfer”… On the other hand… with restricted funding, those who could get those benefits will be those who can pay out of pocket. The result will be two-tiered health care.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology
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