Archive for the ‘Health Policy Context’ Category
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Where is its mind? What the battle over the ‘bible’ says about psychiatry
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
Jul. 10, 2011
… health-insurance companies typically favour DSM-driven medications over talk therapy… But in the longer term… disorders such as depression are more cheaply and just as effectively treated with talk therapy, given the potential consequences of so many people taking so many serious drugs… The obsessive thoroughness of DSM-5’s editors results in casting a wider diagnostic net… Even as the DSM tries to be more inclusive and “dimensional,” it runs the risk of sucking millions of merely unhappy and eccentric souls into the ranks of the mentally disturbed, at vast cost.
Tags: disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical
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Medicare Saves Money
Monday, June 13th, 2011
June 12, 2011
Medicare actually saves money — a lot of money — compared with relying on private insurance companies. And this in turn means that pushing people out of Medicare, in addition to depriving many Americans of needed care, would almost surely end up increasing total health care costs… high U.S. private spending on health care, compared with spending in other advanced countries, just about wipes out any benefit we might receive from our relatively low tax burden.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
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Tories set to steer new course on health care funding
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May. 28, 2011
The Canada Health Transfer, which currently provides $27-billion in cash and $13.6-billion in tax points, expires in 2014… bilateral agreements are a real possibility because the Conservatives have said repeatedly that health is strictly a provincial matter… [and] that they are going to revamp the federal-provincial fiscal arrangement… One of the… proposals… suggested that Ottawa do away with the myriad programs it has for transfers and equalization payments and instead turn over the monies collected from the federal GST to the provinces.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, tax
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Child poverty hurts health even in wealth
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May 26, 2011
… low-income youth in Saskatoon are much more likely to have depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and so on, as well as being more likely to engage in risk behaviours such as drug use and alcohol abuse… In general, the bad news is that the negative health impacts of youth growing up in poverty extend into their adult lives. The good news is that some of these adverse health outcomes can be attenuated through appropriate social policy.
Tags: Health, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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The waiting game
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Apr. 4, 2011
The allocation of medical resources is a political-bureaucratic decision in Canada, not a consumer choice. Instead of rejoicing that fewer Canadians are waiting for some procedures, we should be asking our governments why any delays to accessing necessary medical care are acceptable. Research consistently shows that there are little or no reported waits in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany -all of which have the same social goals as Canada: Universal access to health care.
Tags: Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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Drug costs shouldn’t impoverish Canadians
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Apr. 03, 2011
It is the one area in Canadian medicare where people can lose their homes to pay for health costs… It would be worth having an objective body such as the Health Council of Canada review the plans (or absence of plans) in each province and territory to determine how severe the shortfalls are, where they are, and how much it would cost to make sure Canadians are protected against disaster. Instead of aiming at a perfect plan for all, this country should set a minimum acceptable level, and ensure that all provinces meet it.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Drug coverage by province/territory
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Apr. 03, 2011
If a Canadian had a $20,000 annual drug bill, earned the average Canadian household income of $76,400 and had no private drug insurance, the out-of-pocket costs would vary widely from province to province, from $0 to $20,000. If there were a catastrophic drug plan – one in which patients spend no more than 3 per cent of family income – the results would be much different. No patient would pay more than $2,292
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Ottawa grabs the attention, but the provinces face the heavy lifting
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar. 23, 2011
It remains to be seen how exactly the province will achieve the monumental challenge of flattening health care’s cost curve, which was at the centre of the long-term deficit-reduction plan that Mr. Duncan introduced last year… The federal government… doesn’t face the same crunch, largely because it doesn’t deliver health care – a program that will continue to get more expensive because of an aging population and the ever-increasing costs of new technologies and treatments.
Tags: budget, economy, Health
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Mental Health Strategy for Canada
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Nov. 23, 2010
The release of Toward Recovery and Well-Being: A Framework for a Mental Health Strategy for Canada in November 2009 marked the end of the first phase of the work of the Mental Health Commission of Canada to develop a mental health strategy for the country. This framework sets out seven goals for WHAT a transformed mental health system – one that will enable everyone living in Canada to have the opportunity to achieve the best possible mental health and wellbeing – should look like.
Tags: homelessness, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Homeless patients cost $2,500 more per hospital stay, study finds
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Mar. 08, 2011
The study… found that homeless patients arrived at the hospital with more health problems and stayed longer, often because there was nowhere to send them after they no longer needed acute care. Dr. Hwang’s past research found that homeless people land in hospital more often, with 23 hospitalizations per 100 homeless people in one year versus five hospitalizations per 100 people in the general population.
Tags: budget, Health, homelessness, poverty, standard of living
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