Posts Tagged ‘Health’

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Growing gas plants: a made-in-Ontario public health failure

Friday, November 17th, 2023

Air pollution prematurely kills at least 6,600 Ontarians annually… Breathing toxic polluted air, further worsened by gas expansion, causes disease throughout our bodies… Other jurisdictions worldwide are successfully combining energy conservation, storage, and safe large-scale renewable energy transitions using solar, wind and hydro. Overlooking these low-cost, ready and reliable solutions, the Ontario government deliberately cancelled pre-existing renewable projects, costing taxpayers approximately $231 million.

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National pharmacare dream dying as Trudeau appears ready to cave to Big Pharma

Thursday, November 16th, 2023

… pharmacare would increase Canadian government spending by the equivalent of about one-third of one percentage point of GDP… Even so, politicians seem willing to conjure up the threat of a credit downgrade, scaring Canadians into falsely believing universal pharmacare is unaffordable. (Instead, the Liberals may propose a smaller means-tested program.) … don’t be fooled into believing it’s because we can’t afford it.

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National Pharmacare – Time to Get on With It

Wednesday, November 15th, 2023

National pharmacare is overdue. In 21st century healthcare, drugs are not a luxury nor a discretionary add-on. They are an essential part of healthcare delivery that should be covered universally. Canadians have already waited too long, and far too many of them don’t get the medication they need to stay healthy and manage chronic disease. The federal government can act as a catalyst by making a credible and responsible financial commitment… to improve public plan coverage.

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“Not broken, just underfunded”: for-profit care won’t reduce wait times, CCPA report says

Wednesday, November 15th, 2023

“Ontario does not lack the physical space and equipment to improve wait times for surgeries and medical imaging; what is missing is the health care workforce and funding necessary to do the work.” … Ontario is set to repeat the mistakes of Alberta, a province that saw wait times increase and total surgical volumes decline as public funding and staffing were diverted into investor-owned centres.

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Family doctors are suffering and so are their patients

Monday, November 13th, 2023

The money that family doctors make is at the very bottom of the range of all physicians’ pay… when we are responsible for all the overhead costs of operating a clinic, which are rising every year, and our fees don’t increase to keep up, the difference has to be made up somewhere and it comes out of the doctor’s pocket… it is getting harder and harder to operate a financially sustainable family medicine practice.

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Ontario’s registered nurses are getting new prescribing powers — and some doctors aren’t happy about it

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

Registered nurses will be able to independently prescribe and administer some medications — such as those for smoking cessation, immunizations and topical anesthetics for pain relief and wound care… Nurses who wish to participate must complete additional specialized education, for which registration is expected to begin in January… the change… will help make it easier for patients to get care while also reducing wait times at community clinics and hospitals.

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National Pharmacare – Time to Get on With It

Friday, November 3rd, 2023

The federal government can act as a catalyst by making a credible and responsible financial commitment that opens the door to joint work with provinces and territories to improve public plan coverage. The PEI agreement is a good model and federal legislation can help to create a positive foundation for collaboration. The political window to move things forward is open, but not for long.

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Canada has more doctors than ever — but access is worse. Why is that?

Thursday, November 2nd, 2023

Governments may fund primary health care, but they don’t make the work rules. Those are made mainly by doctors. Medicare still makes sense. Public payment reduces administrative costs while eliminating financial barriers. But because of Medicare’s policy legacies, even doubling the number of doctors would not provide the access we deserve. We need to change the way physicians do their work.

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Ontario plans to expand midwives’ prescribing power

Tuesday, October 31st, 2023

Ontario is planning to expand the list of drugs that midwives can prescribe and administer, including allowing them to prescribe birth control… A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the ministry is reviewing further scope-of-practice changes and is rolling them out based on advice from health-care partners.

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Budget officer estimates cost and savings of single-payer pharmacare

Thursday, October 19th, 2023

The PBO says, “Upon the implementation of a single-payer universal drug plan… we estimate the incremental cost to the public sector (that is, federal and provincial governments) combined to be $11.2 billion in 2024-25, increasing to $14.4 billion in 2027.” In terms of the economy as a whole, the PBO estimates cost savings on drug expenditures of $1.4 billion in 2024-25, rising to $2.2 billion in 2027-28.

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