Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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On Pharmacare, the Liberals offer big questions and small investments
Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
… If [the federal government] were to directly fund and manage drug coverage, there would be less integration in the management of overall health care costs and provinces would have less incentive for cost-effective choices between drugs and other inputs to health care… One hopes that the final report on the Implementation of National Pharmacare will… clarify the intended scope of public drug coverage and Ottawa’s intended role in a new national pharmacare system.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Where is the champion for pharmacare?
Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
Canadians may see some more steps in the right direction in late May or early June when former Ontario Liberal health minister Eric Hoskins releases an in-depth report by a National Advisory Council on pharmacare… But… his council’s report will be impossible to implement without a champion in cabinet… bold plans like pharmacare require the use of political capital, and only a strong champion with serious cabinet clout can make things happen.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
After Bill Morneau’s budget, Liberals should move on pharmacare
Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
The absence of comprehensive prescription drug coverage is the most glaring hole in our much-vaunted medicare system… Setting up a true national pharmacare program will be expensive and difficult, involving major push-back from the insurance industry and complex negotiations with the provinces. But the Liberals should not shy away from the challenge… they came into office promising to make real changes in the lives of ordinary people
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Assessing The National Pharmacare Report
Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
The lack of clarity in the scope of a national formulary and associated listing requirements for public insurance also leaves the future role for private insurance companies largely undefined. If the formulary is comprehensive and the listing agreements binding, then there may be only a minor role for private drug insurance. If, however, the formulary covers only essential medicines and provinces retain autonomy in listing decisions, the role of private insurance would remain largely unchanged.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
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Ontario’s Proposed Super-Agency: The Creation of Ontario Health Under Bill 74
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
This is the second bulletin in our series regarding Bill 74, an Act concerning the provision of health care in Ontario, which will, once passed, create the Connecting Care Act, 2019… This bulletin will summarize key provisions pertaining to the proposed agency, Ontario Health… its objects and powers, its board and senior management, its funding and accountability obligations and the transfer to it of certain existing operations.
Tags: Health, mental Health
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Ontario tinkers with health care, and still nobody knows what anything costs
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Right now doctors are typically paid on a fee-for-service basis. Surgeries and other treatments, on the other hand, are paid for out of hospitals’ global budgets. This has it exactly backwards…. the really interesting unanswered question about these new teams is how they are to be funded… Doctors already have both the know-how and the incentive, via the Hippocratic oath, to do what’s best for their patients; giving them a budget constraint would incentivize them to do what’s best for taxpayers as well.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
In the real world, encouraging signs for pharmacare
Monday, March 11th, 2019
… universal pharmacare, while it would cost Canadians less in total, would cost Canadian governments more – which is why finance ministers such as Bill Morneau are wary of it… a federal-provincial-territorial-Indigenous agency could co-exist with a fill-in-the-gaps system. But it makes more sense to go to all of this bother only for something more comprehensive, such as universal pharmacare.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Put free menstrual products in all women’s washrooms. Period
Monday, March 11th, 2019
the city, school boards and the province should go further. They should strive for what’s known as “period equity” to normalize the conversation around menstruation and end the shame about what is, after all, a normal bodily function for half the population. To start, feminine hygiene products should be available for free not just in shelters and schools, but in workplaces and public spaces such as libraries, concert halls, sports arenas — and even privately owned stores and restaurants.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living, women
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
The Trudeau government’s weak start on pharmacare
Saturday, March 9th, 2019
… its report contains no plan for pharmacare at all. It talks only about creating “building blocks” that could someday, maybe, contribute to a plan… It warns that “without reform, the system will soon be at the breaking point.” But neither the Trudeau government nor its advisory council has yet been willing to follow through to the obvious answer: universal national pharmacare.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Pharmacare panel offers no prescription for how the new program would work
Friday, March 8th, 2019
The interim report called for a new, arm’s-length drug agency to oversee the health-technology assessments (HTA) that evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of new medicines; spearhead negotiations with pharmaceutical companies; and manage a “comprehensive, evidence-based national formulary,” which is a list of drugs covered for everyone.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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