Posts Tagged ‘Health’

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We need to revolutionize how we organize health care in Canada

Friday, April 19th, 2024

… “achieving high value for patients must become the overarching goal of health care delivery, with value defined as the health outcomes per dollar spent.” … Our government should focus less on who they are paying, and more on what they want to buy… This would facilitate innovations in care delivery across the system, and allow for more investment in integrated care programs that span the full continuum. Funding could focus on all-in coverage… including drugs, home care and virtual innovations.

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Liberal budget hits a home run on housing, but plays small ball on care economy

Wednesday, April 17th, 2024

Here are three ways federal small ball could deliver big results without big spends in the coming months: Child care Workforce Deals… with a focus on workforce attraction and retention… tracking trends in the investments occurring in our long-term care, child care and health-care sectors… examining ways of putting new guardrails on public funding… Care services such as child care, long-term care, medical or dental community clinics can be a built-in feature of new housing and infrastructure developments.

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Federal government goes big on housing—is it enough?

Wednesday, April 17th, 2024

2024 federal budget makes biggest investments in housing, care economy in generations with its second-to-last budget before an election… “This government has done more for housing than previous, more recent federal governments…” it will impose a higher tax on capital gains above $250,000 a year… “While the pharmacare program is still quite limited in scope… Combined with dental care, the confidence and supply agreement has driven major changes in the health care landscape in a very short period of time.”

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Protecting public health care from private investors

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024

In Canada, a single private equity firm already owns the largest national network of independent surgical centres — 53 operating rooms spread across 14 centres — in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C… Approximately 90 per cent are publicly funded through partnerships with provincial health systems… Should profit-driven investors own health care facilities?

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Carbon pricing is good for the climate and affordability 

Saturday, April 6th, 2024

To keep the planet livable for humans and most other life forms, we can’t keep burning fossil fuels, which are becoming scarce and costly… Climate-related damage to everything from agriculture to human health also drives up costs for everyone… This is no time to get rid of effective policies, or even water them down. Those attacking the carbon levy with false and misleading information offer no alternatives, especially ones as cost-effective as carbon pricing.

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Justin Trudeau announces national school food program amid rising grocery prices

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

Canada is the only G7 nation without a national school food program, and ranks 37th out of 41 of the world’s wealthiest countries when it comes to providing healthy food for children… one of the reasons for that was the lack of a national school food program… “We’ll finally be able to level the playing field”… the government plans to work with provinces, territories and Indigenous groups to expand existing programs, some of which are funded by under-resourced organizations.

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With its 2024 budget, the Ford government is asking you to trust it. You shouldn’t

Thursday, March 28th, 2024

… it’s one thing to announce billions in new health-care spending… It’s another to admit that 1.3 per cent growth is below inflation and nowhere near enough to sustain public health care in the province, let alone sufficiently expand it. It’s another still to admit that all this program spending amounts, on balance, to real-dollar cuts… The government is going all-in on highways and roads — with a few nods to the poor suckers stuck taking inadequate, crumbling public transportation. 

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Is starving Ontario’s hospitals and schools really something to brag about?

Tuesday, March 26th, 2024

In the last five years, the Ministry of Finance has brought in close to 30 measures to reduce its own revenues. All told, those changes drained no less than $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… The overarching goal is not to use public dollars efficiently, it’s to drive economic activity into the private sector so investors can turn a profit. This is why the current Ontario government has no qualms about privatizing surgeries and diagnostic procedures — even though private procedures can cost more than double what they cost in a public hospital.

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Can new approaches to medical curriculum solve the family doctor shortage?

Friday, March 22nd, 2024

Three new medical schools and an innovative family medicine program look to alleviate a crisis in primary care… Team-based or multidisciplinary care is… an approach that the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) wants provinces to adopt, and soon… While the new medical programs hold a lot of promise for alleviating the family doctor shortage… solving it entirely is a collective responsibility that extends to and beyond all medical schools in Canada.

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Expanded prescribing powers for nurses makes sense

Tuesday, March 12th, 2024

Expanding prescribing powers to nurses will not present the same kinds of concerns as expanding to pharmacists did. Nurses work in clinics that have privacy, and they lack potential financial conflicts of interest. Plus, they’re currently limited to very routine prescriptions, so the danger of a blown diagnosis is minimal… the goal is not leaving any to suffer for lack of access to a safe, proven treatment. And that is absolutely the status quo that already exists today for millions.

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