Posts Tagged ‘privatization’
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The public lab that could have helped fight COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
… our willingness to go along with the privatization cult in recent decades has left us weaker and less protected than we could be. Not only do we no longer have Connaught Labs, but Canada spends $1 billion a year funding basic medical research at Canadian universities, yet relies on the private marketplace to produce, control — and profit from — the resulting medical innovations… With a surge in future global pandemics expected, it might well be time to rethink Canada’s foolhardy attachment to the notion “the private sector always does things better.”
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health History | No Comments »
The future of medicare shouldn’t be left up to the courts
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020
Most countries with universal health care have a mix of public and private provision and payment of care… Canada actually has more private spending and a greater dependence on private insurance than virtually every other country with universal health care… for prescription drugs, dental care, vision care, hearing aids, home care, long-term care and much more. Surely many of these services are “medically necessary,” but public access and funding is greatly lacking. Ultimately, we need to decide what is covered by medicare and what isn’t.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Taxing the rich is but one tool for economic transformation
Friday, January 24th, 2020
Stakeholder capitalism and slight tax increases on the wealthy are, in effect, a glossy sales pitch to maintain the status quo, with slight concessions made to avoid bigger, more fundamental changes… Changes beyond tinkering will require more democratic control of the economy. For one, that means reversing the trend of privatizing of public services… New and bigger workers’ co-operatives and credit unions can also contribute to democratizing our economy.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Government must step in to fix the gig economy
Wednesday, January 8th, 2020
The nature of work is changing. But that shouldn’t mean that jobs, particularly those for low-paid workers, just get worse and worse. Ontario needs to tackle the widening gaps in worker protections. If it doesn’t, companies in the gig economy and traditional sectors alike will continue to exploit loopholes — and their workers. A business model that relies on the exploitation of others is a terrible step backwards. It can’t be the way of the future.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Do Canadian Conservatives even know what conservativism means any more?
Thursday, December 26th, 2019
Somewhere along the way, conservatives went off track. Tax cuts, deregulation and free trade became ends unto themselves without any consideration for their consequences for working-class citizens. Inevitably, the latter revolted. The result was Donald Trump’s election to the White House in 2016 and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union… Canadian conservatism needs to be more than a carbon copy of whatever becomes of its U.S. counterpart.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
A tricky operation: Finding a place for private health insurance in a public system
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019
Every health insurance program in the developed world, public and private, is struggling with a daunting triple challenge: An aging population, the soaring cost of new technologies and rising consumer expectations… private sector efficiency is a myth. Private hospitals keep patients longer, order more tests, prescribe more drugs and provide a lot of low-value or no-value care. They overtreat and overcharge… private hospitals are not going to solve the woes of Canadian medicare
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Ontario’s healthcare spending lowest in Canada — but going lower
Thursday, November 21st, 2019
These cuts, totalling about $360 million, will affect everything from mental health care to cancer screening, according to Natalie Mehra, head of the Ontario Health Coalition… Their impact will likely be profound, since… Ontario’s health-care spending is only $3,903 per person — the lowest of the ten provinces — and $487 per person lower than the Canadian average…
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, philanthropy, privatization, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
To fight regional economic disparity, Ontario needs Opportunity Zones
Thursday, November 14th, 2019
… the transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy seems to be exacerbating them as part of a global trend that urban scholar Richard Florida describes as “winner-take-all urbanism.”… This trend toward place-based bifurcation isn’t just about economic activity either. It’s manifesting itself in demography, educational attainment, health outcomes and other socioeconomic characteristics.
Tags: economy, participation, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario to pay $1 million to private contractor to cut costs in developmental disabilities services sector
Sunday, November 10th, 2019
The government’s budget showed a $1-billion cut in the children and social services sector over three years, and set a target of a $510 million annual cut in 2021-22 from “operational efficiencies and cost savings.”… Efficiencies would include “evidence-based sector transformation, including in developmental services, child welfare, as well as special needs and early intervention programs…to continue investments in core services such as in the Ontario Autism Program.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Voters beware: National pharmacare is unnecessary, bad for privately insured Canadians and costly for taxpayers
Saturday, October 19th, 2019
… it would be less disruptive and less expensive to just fill the gaps caused by public formulary exclusions… CHPI’s model doesn’t require shifting the full cost of existing provincial public drug plans onto the federal budget, nor require the government to cover privately paid costs, so it reduces the burden on the federal budget by $14.1 billion compared to the PBO’s model.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, tax
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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