Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category

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The health-care sky is not falling !

Saturday, November 12th, 2011

Nov 11 2011
Health care increased its share of the public pie from 1997 to 2008 largely because government cut the size of the pie by axing other programs. The feds eliminated the National Housing Program in 1993 and Ontario social assistance recipients have seen their inflation-adjusted incomes fall by 40 per cent since 1995. These policy debacles have made a lot of people sick and applied pressure to hospitals and other health-care organizations.

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So many ways to die

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Nov 5, 2011
The National Post’s graphics team takes another look at what was killing Canadians in 2008.

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Welfare and health

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Oct. 28, 2011
The health-care crisis facing Canada today (along with its accordant costs) in many ways parallels the challenges facing Canada in the early 1990s regarding welfare dependency. The successful welfare reforms that gave the provinces the autonomy to innovate provide a model for reforming Canada’s health care… The CHST afforded the provinces much greater latitude to experiment and innovate in the design and delivery of welfare and related services. There were a number of common reforms implemented by most of the provinces. One common feature of reform was a reduction in benefit levels..

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Canadian doctors still make dramatically less than U.S. counterparts: study

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Sep 14, 2011
Despite recent fee hikes, Canadian doctors still lag dramatically far behind their American counterparts in income, according to a new study that also underscores the wide pay gap in both countries between front-line “primary-care” physicians and much-wealthier surgical specialists… The U.K. also pays its surgeons more than Canada, while both it and Germany better compensate primary-care doctors…

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Look abroad for health-care reform ideas

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Aug 27, 2011
What coverage has there been on the four critical queuing phenomena of occupancy, variability, pooling of resources and prioritization? Despite spending a bit less than $200-billion on health care in Canada in 2010, most administrators tasked with improving wait times are not familiar with these four concepts. To the best of my knowledge, we still graduate doctors without a single hour’s exposure to congestion issues. Yet doctors have to deal with it on a daily basis throughout their careers. Both of these situations have to change, and the media has a role in making it happen by starting to cover this issue.

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The case against user fees

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Aug. 17, 2011
Re-search to date suggests two good reasons why patient-financed health care doesn’t make sense. First, user fees discourage patients from seeking both unnecessary and necessary care. This is often penny wise and pound foolish… Health care financed by patients does not save money. It transfers costs from third-party payers to patients, but the total cost is often higher… User fees may – ironically – encourage unnecessary or marginally useful care in order to make sure physicians and hospital beds stay occupied.

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The Decline of Smoking in Canada

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Jul 29, 2011
The latest Statistics Canada figures show smoking rates are fairly stable. In 2010, 20.8 per cent of Canadians aged 12 and over — about six million people — were smokers. Five years ago, there were 5.9 million smokers or 22 per cent of the population. In 2003, 23 per cent of Canadians aged 12 or older, smoked… In 2001, 73 per cent of youth said they never smoked cigarettes. In 2005, the percentage rose to 82 per cent. This finding is key because most smokers start before age 18, and research shows that it is rare for adults to take up smoking.

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Ottawa off the hook in tobacco lawsuits, Supreme court rules

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Jul 29, 2011
In a unanimous decision Friday, the court ruled tobacco companies should bear the full financial brunt of any future settlements in the lawsuits… Four provinces — B.C., Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador — have launched lawsuits against tobacco companies for past, present and future health care associated with tobacco use. Four more have announced intentions to launch lawsuits of their own… Ontario is suing tobacco companies for $50 billion.

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Draft report calls for reduction of suicide stigma

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Jul 19, 2011
The goal, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, should be a “cultural shift toward recovery,” which favours real improvement over ideal cure, and is informed by “multiple sources of knowledge,” including the traditions of restorative justice and the hard-won wisdom of people in recovery… The strategy acknowledges the federal government’s arm’s-length role in health-care delivery, but argues that mental health is not purely a health issue, as it also involves criminal justice, housing, finance and child services.

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Butting Heads [DSM update]

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Jul. 10, 2011
Without quickly offering a diagnostic label and a prescription, there are very few ways to make a living as a psychiatrist in the U.S. today. We do not face these issues in the same way in Canada. Inherent in the DSM system is the necessity that the condition leads to clinically significant distress or clear and measured impairment in social and occupational functioning… Ian Brown’s sound diagnosis of psychiatry and its diagnostic system logically leads to the conclusion that establishing the diagnostic system should be a public policy matter, not left exclusively to psychiatry.

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