Posts Tagged ‘privatization’

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Greed fuels fight for private health care

Thursday, September 17th, 2020

Justice John Steeves ruled that Day failed to show patients rights were being violated because of long wait times, noting the law was based on equitable access to care, not on a patient’s ability to pay… If the judge had ruled in Day’s favour, it would have been a nail in the coffin for public medicare… by opening the door for insurance companies and financial institutions to make a ton of money — the very people who will financially support Day and others fighting for private health care.

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Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


Private pay is not the cure for the Canadian health system’s wait-time crisis

Monday, September 14th, 2020

… sometimes more money is what’s needed. But the evidence is clear that fixing wait times, including for the kinds of procedures at issue in the Cambie trial, does not require endless new resources…. Teams that involve non-physician professionals, such as nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and more, can also see people more quickly… The work of getting there will be tough; it requires leadership on the part of governments, system leaders, doctors and more.

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


It took a disaster for Doug Ford to abandon Mike Harris’s destructive legacy

Saturday, June 27th, 2020

Never mind the rhetoric about cutting red tape, slashing taxes, unplugging photo radar, downsizing government and downloading welfare, its underpinning is simply this: Politics shall henceforth be transactional. Not transformational. Ask not what you can do for your country or province. Ask what your government can do for you to keep more money in your pocket… But it took the COVID-19 crisis to truly unravel that revolution — at least for now.

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Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »


It’s time to expand Canadian medicare, and make it truly universal

Saturday, June 6th, 2020

Canadians have cradle-to-grave insurance for services from a doctor or hospital. But dentistry? Drugs? No. Denticare and pharmacare aren’t part of medicare… Getting to truly universal health insurance, covering all required health services, doesn’t necessarily mean doing it on medicare’s government-runs-it-all model. A number of countries with more extensive and successful health systems rely on a regulated private sector to ensure that everyone is covered.

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What Kind of Economic Recovery do Canadians Want?

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

Canadians, by a 2 to 1 margin, want governments to spend whatever is required to rebuild and stimulate the economy, even if it means running large deficits for the foreseeable future… Building Canada’s ability to produce key products like food and medical supplies domestically… Investing in strengthening the health system, including universal public pharmacare… Not letting richer Canadians off the hook for contributing their fair share… Helping people who need it the most…

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We must ensure the post-COVID world does not fall prey to socialism

Wednesday, May 20th, 2020

There is a titanic political struggle about to come. The right must start thinking about how to fight it… It will be a conflict in which the natural supporters of free enterprise as the foundation of human progress, and fiscal responsibility as the bedrock of a confident economy, will suddenly find themselves on the back foot… if people are left to turn only to socialist ideas in the wake of these terrible weeks, today’s tragedies will turn into the lifelong torment of tomorrow.

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Posted in Debates, Equality Debates | No Comments »


Burden of the crisis must be shared fairly

Thursday, May 14th, 2020

The new LEEFF (for Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility) program is… designed to provide loans to big companies that are having trouble getting credit from private lenders… it comes with what the government calls “strict conditions.” … to maintain jobs and investment; uphold existing labour contracts and pension obligations; abide by federal goals on the environment and sustainability; and limit executive compensation, dividend payouts, and share buy-back schemes.

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Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »


For-profit nursing homes have four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes, Star analysis finds

Saturday, May 9th, 2020

A resident in a for-profit home has been about 60 per cent more likely to catch COVID-19 and 45 per cent more likely to die than a resident in a non-profit home. A for-profit resident has also been about four times more likely to catch COVID-19 and four times more likely to die than a resident in a municipally run home… Overall, for-profit homes make up less than 60 per cent of long-term-care homes in the province, but they account for 16 of the 20 worst outbreaks.

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Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »


Neo-liberalism may be another COVID-19 victim

Friday, May 8th, 2020

Overall, neo-liberalism seemed to be working. The developed world got its foreign-made goods at bargain basement prices. The workers of the developing world were usually exploited. But at least they had jobs… Now we have a pandemic that strikes right at the heart of globalization… Global supply chains may work in neo-liberal theory. But in the real world of disease, fear and sharp practices, these supply chains are strikingly vulnerable.

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Mike Harris expanded the privatization of long-term care. Doug Ford is discovering that wasn’t a magic cure

Tuesday, May 5th, 2020

There is a contradiction in the criticisms of long-term care: We want to have it all for nothing — better beds but more of them; more quantity and more quality; single rooms with private bathrooms but without the wait lists; more for less… Today, in a pandemic cycle, beware the panaceas.

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Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 12 Comments »


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