Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Time to reveal individual MD’s OHIP billings
Sunday, April 14th, 2019
The fact is, releasing physician-identified billings is hardly groundbreaking. It already occurs in British Columbia, Manitoba and New Brunswick and in the United States. But in Ontario, taxpayers have been left in the dark, wondering what to make of a health ministry audit conducted five years ago that raised some troubling questions… Allowing questionable billings to go unchallenged only serves to unfairly tarnish the reputations of all doctors.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Nova Scotia is showing the way on organ donation
Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
This is the first time what’s known as “presumed consent” legislation will become law anywhere in Canada or the United States. But it’s far from new elsewhere in the world… The fact is about 4,500 people are on waiting lists for organ donations in Canada in any given year and the wait for a transplant can be up to six years. Sadly, about 250 people die each year waiting for such organs as hearts and lungs.
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
NDP pharmacare plan sets a new standard
Monday, April 8th, 2019
… families now enjoying private drug insurance would save $550 a year on average under a universal public scheme. Employers that offer drug coverage to their workers would pay on average $600 less per employee. In short, Canadians would pay more in taxes for pharmaceuticals but less overall. The NDP is sketchy on the politics of its plan, particularly on how to get the provinces to agree.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
In Ontario, a battle for the soul of psychiatry
Sunday, April 7th, 2019
The ministry’s proposed new approach, modelled on U.S.-style, managed care, is designed to limit the type and amount of treatment individual patients will receive, regardless of their presenting symptoms… If it goes through, it will be the biggest change in psychiatry in the history of the discipline in Canada, and turn psychiatrists from “treaters” into “consultants” who will diagnose patients in a single session, and make recommendations for others to follow, then wave goodbye.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario should get tougher on raising vaccination rates
Friday, April 5th, 2019
The numbers gathered by the Star from public health units around the province show vaccination rates vary considerably, but are too low to provide so-called “herd immunity” for the general population… The province should move toward eliminating non-medical exemptions for the vaccinations that children must have in order to attend school… Better to act now than to put health and lives at risk.
Tags: Health, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s response to the opioid crisis? Offer less help, and fewer answers
Monday, April 1st, 2019
Using Orwellian doublespeak – plus a dash of Trumpian random capitalization – the government was not announcing that it was “continuing to build a connected mental health and addictions treatment system”, but rather that it was cutting the legs from under four badly-needed overdose prevention sites, rejecting two others, and continuing to drag its feet on funding of additional sites.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
To end hallway medicine, we should consider a public-private model
Monday, April 1st, 2019
In a pluralistic model with public-private competition, providers and insurance plans have more freedom to experiment, because patients or doctors who don’t like what is being tried have alternatives. The result may well be more innovation and, in the long run, a more efficient system.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s national strategy on dementia must break the cycle of shame
Friday, March 29th, 2019
The recent federal budget contains a $50-million, five-year commitment for a strategy to support Canadians with cognitive decline, their caregivers and the health professionals who manage or research the disease. Details will be announced later this spring, and the Public Health Agency of Canada is to oversee the roll-out of the strategy. It had better be worth the wait.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario health care reform success depends on social assistance system
Thursday, March 28th, 2019
To develop strong wrap-around supports in health care, social assistance service managers (the entities that broadly administer social assistance in municipalities) should be identified as partners for Ontario Health Teams… If the government has truly taken to putting people at the centre of reform, this is a unique opportunity where changes in social assistance and health care could be complementary, not contradictory.
Tags: Health, ideology, poverty
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Bill 74: Integration and Accountability in Ontario’s Health System under the Connecting Care Act, 2019
Friday, March 22nd, 2019
… the proposed Connecting Care Act, 2019 (the “Act”), if enacted, will: permit the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care (the “Minister”) to create new integrated care delivery systems (“ICDS”); … integrate health service providers (“HSPs”) and ICDS; and create accountability mechanisms to monitor and manage ICDS and HSPs and other persons and entities that receive government funding.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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