Posts Tagged ‘privatization’

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Cutting out-of-country OHIP coverage is wrong and pointless

Thursday, April 25th, 2019

… the government paid out just $9 million last year for emergency coverage… a tiny fraction of one percentage point, of overall Ontario medical spending of $63.5 billion (with a b)… The government’s argument is that the existing program covers only a fraction of medical costs abroad. On that it’s correct… And it’s a gift to private insurers who no doubt will see a spike in business if all out-of-country coverage is yanked away.

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To end hallway medicine, we should consider a public-private model

Monday, April 1st, 2019

In a pluralistic model with public-private competition, providers and insurance plans have more freedom to experiment, because patients or doctors who don’t like what is being tried have alternatives. The result may well be more innovation and, in the long run, a more efficient system.

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Ontario’s looming health care reforms are being rushed through to limit public scrutiny, critics say

Tuesday, February 12th, 2019

TheStar.com Politics/Provincial Politics Feb. 11, 2019.   By ROB FERGUSON, Queen’s Park Bureau The Ford government’s looming health-care system “transformation” is being rushed through with little explanation to limit scrutiny by the public, the Ontario Health Coalition charges. Citing confidential draft legislation and other documents leaked to the New Democrats indicating elements of the plan — […]

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Charting the Path to National Pharmacare in Canada

Tuesday, February 5th, 2019

… a federally financed, regulated and administered pharmacare program… is constitutionally feasible because of the federal government’s current jurisdiction over drug safety, price regulation and patent protection. While it is generally assumed that federalism and provincial jurisdiction over health stand in the way of a federal government public single payer program, the provinces have supported this option in the past, with the caveat that special arrangements may have to be made for Quebec.

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Tilting at windmills won’t solve our health-care woes

Monday, February 4th, 2019

Almost all health services are contracted out to private providers – doctors (most of whom are corporations), hospitals (which are not-for-profit corporations), pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers (for-profit corporations), home care and long-term care facilities (a mix of non-profit and for-profit corporations) and so on…. we have the least-universal universal health-insurance system in the world. More than 30 per cent of care is paid for privately.

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Countering political disinformation campaigns requires transparency

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

… if the purpose is to catch foreign efforts to sway the campaign with disinformation and divisive message, the definition of political ads is too narrow. Those Russian-paid ads didn’t always mention a candidate or a party. A real effort to try to counter disinformation campaigns would require some broadly open-source transparency for a larger class of paid messages. The big social-media companies seem to believe that clashes with their business model.

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The secret moves to increase private health care

Thursday, January 10th, 2019

Secretly… a major multi-faceted campaign is underway inside and outside the premier’s office to develop a two-tier system of health care in Ontario, complete with specialized private clinics and the ability of some doctors to charge more than standard rates for medical procedures they perform outside of a public hospital or health centre… Insurance firms are excited about the possibility of increased private health care. They see huge profits in offering corporations private insurance programs for employees who visit private clinics…

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Ontario should stop stalling on making payments to doctors public

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

… it is so alarming that months after taking office the Ford government has yet to enact regulations that would bring into force the Health Sector Transparency Act passed by the previous Liberal government. It should quit stalling. The legislation would compel drug companies and those that manufacture medical devices to publicly report cash payments, free dinners, trips and other benefits they dole out to doctors, dentists and pharmacists.

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Limits on income sprinkling cut into family businesses

Wednesday, October 10th, 2018

In the past, business owners would sprinkle income to family members in lower tax brackets through dividends as a way to lower the family’s overall tax bill. For many business owners, this was considered a perk for a spouse’s involvement in the daily operations, even if they weren’t a paid employee, or to help pay for a child’s education. The federal government cracked down on income splitting as part of a broader set of tax changes for private corporations.

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The truth behind wait times and private health care

Friday, October 5th, 2018

We have emergent issues to address in our health care system, but most come from its two-tiered part, not its universal part. Thirty per cent of our system is private… Our health outcomes are impaired by the lack of non-physician public health care: lack of dental care that drives people to the ED for tooth pain, lack of physiotherapy that results in a reliance on opiates for back pain rather than desperately needed manual therapy, and a lack of pharmacare that ends in 1-in-10 Canadians being unable to fill their prescriptions.

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