Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Insiders Detail Ways Alberta’s For-Profit Surgery Push Is Failing
Monday, November 17th, 2025
“The evidence will tell you that those places with for-profit facilities don’t do more surgeries because they are using the same surgeons and the same anesthesiologists as in the public system,” … In Quebec and Ontario, where governments have released data in response to freedom of information requests, the surgeries performed in for-profit facilities have been shown to be “two or three times as expensive for such operations as cataracts and knees.”
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | 5 Comments »
I was recruited to join a private health centre as a doctor. Here is why I said no
Tuesday, November 11th, 2025
Health care in Canada was built on solidarity, on the idea that access to care should be based on need, not ability to pay. Every doctor and nurse diverted to private-pay clinics is a resource taken away from the collective effort to rebuild universal primary care. There is no justification for pawning the family dishware, so that a lucky few can eat with silver spoons… primary care should be unhurried and personal. That vision doesn’t require $4,000 membership fees.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Update the Canada Health Act
Monday, November 10th, 2025
After four decades, Canadians have a clearer sense of the system’s strengths and weaknesses. And the pandemic underscored both the value of universal health care and the urgent need for modernization… many changes could be achieved through more efficient organization, not just more spending. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can often provide high-quality primary care less expensively than physicians, while expanded roles for pharmacists or midwives could also achieve savings and relieve some of the workload falling solely to family doctors.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
If a mine is a nation-building project, why not universal pharmacare? Inside the big push to get Mark Carney behind it
Monday, October 27th, 2025
The type of pharmacare most advocates want to see the policy evolve into is a universal, single-payer model, where governments would foot the majority of prescription drug costs for all Canadians… tens of billions of dollars Canada shells out on prescription medications annually would be better spent within the country’s borders, bolstering domestic production capacity… The gaps exposed by COVID-19 — the procurement chaos, supply chain woes, equipment shortages and expiring oversupply — make some believe pharmacare holds the potential to strengthen Canada’s autonomy and security, too.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
B.C. showed how to fix the family doctor crisis — but Ontario’s not listening
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025
The real issue is that a growing number of family physicians — now 1-in-5 — opt out of comprehensive general practice and pursue focused roles, like ER shifts or walk-in clinics. The number of physicians rejecting cradle-to-grave care has nearly tripled since the 1990s… Ontario’s $1.8‑billion investment in Family Health Teams — partnerships linking family doctors with services like nurses, social workers and mental health providers — addresses these issues and improves care.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Three lessons Canada can learn from Australia’s health-care system
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025
First, expanding access and improving health outcomes can happen without massive increases in public spending… Second, more private-sector involvement in health care is not a cure-all… Third, minimizing administrative burdens will foster a more efficient and effective health-care system… Canada’s federal government should take the lead in co-ordinating and funding comparative analyses of the two countries’ health-care systems…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, participation, privatization
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
The evidence is clear: National pharmacare for contraception can’t wait
Friday, October 17th, 2025
If Canada’s pre-existing mix of public and private insurance provided sufficient access to contraception, we would have seen little or no change when contraception became free in B.C. But… Our research showed a 49 per cent increase in the use of the most effective contraceptive methods when they were available at no cost.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, participation, women, youth
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
As the family doctor and nursing shortage gets worse, here is an innovative solution that will help
Thursday, September 25th, 2025
The province’s use of electronic health records remains far behind its potential… Health-care shortages could kick‑start a revolution in patient care and give patients real‑time access to the medical services they need and the ability to arrange them with a few clicks. It would free family doctors to do the work only we can do… No Ontarian should have to risk missing a cancer diagnosis, waiting months for a vaccine or spending hours in an ER because the system is stuck in the past.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Health advocates call on Liberals to keep pharmacare promise ahead of budget
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025
Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Carney’s office declined to commit to signing more pharmacare deals over the summer, and promised only to protect what was in place… The law requires the national drug agency to develop a list of essential drugs for a national formulary and to work on a national bulk-purchasing strategy to bring prices down.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ford government announces new deal with doctors — with pay boost and incentives to take on more patients in family medicine
Monday, September 22nd, 2025
The Ford government has reached a new deal with Ontario’s doctors, announcing on Thursday a four-year agreement that boosts compensation for physicians and includes measures that will encourage more to practise comprehensive family medicine. The agreement… will see physicians get a 7.3 per cent increase in compensation over the next three years. This builds on a 10 per cent increase that doctors received in the first year of the agreement, awarded by an arbitrator last year.
Tags: budget, Health, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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