Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Reforming our approach to drugs
Sunday, August 21st, 2022
… while study after study confirms that criminalization has no effect on drug usage rates, it has created a vast transnational network of organized crime… the federal government’s expert task force last year recommended an end to our century-long experiment with prohibition. As its “core priority,” the force recommended Canada “immediately develop and implement a single public health framework with specific regulations for all psychoactive substances, including currently illegal drugs as well as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.”
Tags: crime prevention, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario is going to lean on private health facilities. Here’s what that could mean for our system
Saturday, August 20th, 2022
“What happens when you inject private money into the health-care system, there is a short term boost in capital … but that doesn’t last very long, and the costs will go up… systems with higher rates of private financing are negatively associated with universality, equity, accessibility and quality of care, as has previously been found in international literature reviews”
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Doug Ford hasn’t revealed a plan to dismantle public health care — or one to fix it
Saturday, August 20th, 2022
It’s too easy to get bogged down on jurisdictional and ideological debates. Federal transfer payments are a chimera, just as privatization is a panacea if not done judiciously… Medicare never proscribed the private delivery of services — whether by doctors, pharmacies or clinics — it merely prescribed the public accessibility of medically necessary services without extra billing. Rather than fixate over privatization, let’s focus on innovation.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Is it really an ER when it opens and closes constantly, or is it just a ‘room’?
Friday, August 12th, 2022
Ontario will “take bold action.” What else could this mean but the right-wing dream that never dies: privatizing public health care, on the model of highly profitable long-term-care homes… You can sense a new zeitgeist today in the rejection of neo-liberal globalization by the same parties in the U.S., U.K. and Canada that ushered it in. And in an openness to larger public activity on COVID and climate change.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario should ditch any plans to further privatize health care. It just doesn’t work — and usually makes matters worse
Friday, August 12th, 2022
First, the government should ditch any plans to further privatize the system… That’s because it benefits not those who need health care, but those who can pay the handsome user fees required by what in effect is two-tier health care. Second, the government would be wise to view this crisis as an opportunity — a chance to rationalize and expand a public system that by and large does work.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ford government plans more low wages for women health care workers
Tuesday, August 9th, 2022
We are facing a major staffing crisis in health care and nowhere more so than in home care. Yet this government continues to pursue a low-wage strategy for the female health care workforce, a strategy that is quickly demolishing health care in Ontario. We need to end the war on women health care workers. We need a government that can help make home care an attractive place to work — not a worse place to work.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
‘On the cusp of collapsing’: The crisis in our emergency departments is a consequence of poor public policy
Tuesday, August 9th, 2022
For several years, Ontario has been facing parallel compounding issues of funding cuts to health care, especially in the community, and devaluation of health-care workers, the largest group of which are nurses. It seems these issues have finally converged to create the perfect storm of our present crisis. We need a systemic solution that focuses less on infrastructure and more on the people working within it; more beds are no longer the answer.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Time for Doug Ford government to act on health care crisis
Thursday, August 4th, 2022
In times of crisis, leadership carries a particular responsibility. It is about showing up, demonstrating competence and shoring up confidence. It’s about accountability, being seen to be in charge, about restoring trust when trust is wavering… It’s time the Ford government gave evidence of being appropriately seized by the urgency of the health-care crisis and with taking responsibility for addressing public anxiety about it.
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
An unhealthy shortage of family doctor
Monday, August 1st, 2022
There is no single fix to the stresses Canada’s health-care system is facing. But efforts that bolster the ranks of family doctors — such as easing the administrative burdens that detract from patient care and encouraging the expansion of family medicine teams — hold the promise of improving our collective health.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Are thousands of uninsured people about to lose health coverage in Ontario? Fears grow about end to COVID-era OHIP rules
Saturday, July 30th, 2022
… the care for the uninsured throughout the pandemic has been about one per cent of the total hospital spending and “across virtually every health condition, there is evidence that prevention improves health and let people live longer and better lives.”… The interim policy has also simplified the administrative work for health-care providers and alleviated their stress and burnout…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, immigration, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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