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Deb Matthews slashes fees for OHIP services to save $338 million
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
May 07 2012
Health Minister Deb Matthews announced Monday there would be 37 changes to the OHIP fee schedule, targeting hundreds of services provided by cardiologists, radiologists and ophthalmologists. The doctors claim this will mean longer waits in emergency wards and for test results — and warn that patients could expect a harder time finding a family doctor or a specialist because of fewer physicians. “Our doctors are the best paid in Canada,” said Matthews… “Instead of another raise for doctors, we need a real wage freeze so we can invest in more home care,”
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Focus on children first in tackling mental health
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
May 08 2012
… the Mental Health Commission of Canada released its blueprint for a national strategy to properly treat and support Canadians with mental illness. The comprehensive document covers every aspect of what needs to change – from how employers and schools handle mental illness to the need for more affordable housing and a reformed justice system that doesn’t criminalize illness. The danger now, though, is that rather than embracing the challenge, Harper may throw up his hands at the enormity of it all – and the seemingly high price-tag that comes with it.
Tags: mental Health, standard of living, youth
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Paying doctors and wait times: How does Canada compare?
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
May 02 2012
A recent paper put out by the OECD suggests that in 2004 Canadian GPs were paid about the same in PPP dollars as doctors in Switzerland and Austria, but less than those in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Using the comparison to average wages, however, Canadian GPs are among the highest paid in the OECD, just below the United States (3.2 times the average wage versus 3.4 in the U.S.)… Simply spending more doesn’t seem to solve the wait time problem, but targeted spending on agreed upon targets that increases productivity appears to deliver better results than across-the-board increases to any part of the health-care system.
Tags: budget, globalization, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s child welfare system has failed 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
May 02 2012
There is no point in simply recommending more rules if they are either unworkable or will be ignored. Years of court cases, inquests, pediatric death review committee reports and internal children’s aid reviews have led to an increasing number of laws, rules and procedures to follow. Yet, somehow, children like Katelynn are still dying… This government saw fit to appoint a commission to make child welfare more cost effective. How about a commission with a mandate to make it better?
Tags: child care, rights, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Toronto incubates new brand of business-charity hybrids
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
May 01 2012
Social enterprises are business-charity hybrids. They aim to do well in the marketplace in order to do good in the community. The concept is not new. Long before anyone was theorizing about it, Maritimers were doing it. Dairy famers built co-op creameries to cut their costs and stabilize their communities… These grassroots initiatives were one of the best anti-poverty programs ever conceived… In the ’60s, it petered out. Today’s social enterprise movement is a digital, secular, urban renaissance of that tradition.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa’s low-wage immigration policy threatens turmoil
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
Apr 27 2012
this government… says that if Canadians don’t want to see jobs going to foreigners, they should quit whining and accept lower wages. Which is why Ottawa’s answer to complaints made about temporary foreign workers is to toughen Employment Insurance rules. Kenney has warned that unemployed workers who refuse to take low-wage jobs will have their EI benefits cut off. If Canadians agree to work for less, he explains, Ottawa won’t have to bring in as many low-wage outsiders. All of this is a solution of sorts, I suppose, albeit a 19th century one. But it is a solution that threatens to bring with it the kind of agitation now seen in countries like France, Holland and Greece — where the racist right is on the rise and where far too many workers view immigrants as mortal enemies out to steal their jobs.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Two-tiered wage system announced by Tories
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
Apr 28 2012
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has always vehemently denied bringing cheap foreign labour into Canada. Employers had to pay foreign temporary workers “the prevailing wage,” he pointed out. That indeed is what the rules said – until Wednesday, when Human Resources Minister Diane Finley quietly changed them. Employers will now be allowed to pay foreign temp workers 15 per cent less than the average wage… When Canada introduced its temporary foreign worker program in 2002, the governing Liberals vowed never to adopt the European model route in which “guest workers” are paid less than nationals and treated as second-class residents
Tags: immigration, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Migrants need protection from Bill C-31
Friday, April 27th, 2012
Apr 26 2012
At best, these policies are misguided and driven by ideology. At worst, they are intentionally cruel and inhumane. Bill C-31 proposes automatic detention of refugee claimants for up to one year without review if deemed unilaterally to be an “irregular arrival” by the Minister of Public Safety… The health consequences of the policies proposed by C-31 cannot be underestimated. In Australia, where the policies that Kenney proposes have been tried and discarded, studies show that detention increases risk of suicidal thoughts, post-traumatic stress disorder and self-harm in refugee claimants.
Tags: budget, Health, immigration, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Health Canada cuts funding to women’s health research groups
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Apr 25 2012
Six organizations studying how government policies on everything from toxic chemicals to the legacy of residential schools impact women’s health will lose their funding as part of widespread cuts to the federal budget. Health Canada expects to save $2.85 million a year by eliminating the Women’s Health Contribution Program, which supports the work of four research centres and two communications networks across the country, by next March… the biggest loss will be how the groups went beyond clinical research to focus on how particular government policies and regulations affect the health of women.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living, women
Posted in Health Debates | 8 Comments »
Ottawa to cut health care for some refugees
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Apr 25 2012
Currently, all refugees are covered by the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), which provides basic health coverage, sometimes with supplementary services such as pharmaceutical care, dentistry, vision care and devices such as walkers and wheelchairs, if required… The plan announced Wednesday stipulates that rejected claimants and refugees from designated countries won’t be eligible for health care unless their conditions put the public at risk. All refugees will also be stripped of supplemental health coverage.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, immigration, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
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