The Canada Health Act must permit more room for experimentation and innovation at a provincial level The provinces say they need more federal money for health. The federal government says it wants to be assured of improved outcomes first. In my view, adding money, even with various provinces and metrics, will not be sufficient. We…
Provinces should allow other options, like duplicate insurance, so patients can access the care they need more quickly Over 660,000 Canadians are waiting for surgery at the moment, with many waiting long months and even years. For these people, each day stuck on a waiting list is 24 more hours of sore knees, of pain…
The competition will pressure governments to improve the public system Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to use private health centres to alleviate long wait lists has faced opposition from many quarters. It may seem counterintuitive, but Ford’s plan will actually ease the shortages of doctors and nurses. It was B.C.’s NDP government of the early…
Foreign-trained health professionals could help alleviate the strain Canada’s medical system is fast becoming a disaster area and a tragedy. There are not nearly enough family doctors to provide primary health care. Walk-in clinics were supposed to backfill this need, but many now do not take walk-ins as their registered patient load is already beyond…
Any ‘ tweaking’ by government could lead to unintended consequences Conservative leaders seem loath to mention health care in equal measure to journalists’ delight in raising it. John Ivison, a columnist at the National Post, took a stab at federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre last week: “You simply can’t aspire to be prime minister of Canada…
Canada’s blind commitment to a failed ideology is worsening health-care outcomes When COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strategists seized upon a radical plan to prevent the spread of the virus. Instead of adopting a pandemic plan to protect the oldest and weakest while keeping daily life functioning as normally as…
Smart health-care cards would reduce costs and free up doctors’ time Canada’s health care system was once a great source of national pride and a shining example to countries less fortunate, such as the United States. Now all most Canadians see is a series of deficiencies and problems. The latest and best (and most expensive)…
Will they take the money and run or stick to their principles? Family doctors in British Columbia seem to have struck gold this week. The province offered a $135,000, 54 per cent raise in return for a change from fee-for-service to a rostered – or what’s known as capitation-style – practice. This means average total…
Overburdened emergency physicians tend to order more tests for less-severe patients
It’s no secret that emergency health care in Canada is in crisis. Staff shortages have caused some emergency departments to close temporarily as already stretched resources are pushed to the breaking point by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the crisis has been brewing across the developed world for decades, says University of Alberta business professor Mohamad…
Failings of the health system are not due to chronic underfunding
If Quebec voters have one concern during the current election campaign, and just about every election campaign for decades now, it’s the health-care system. Contrary to what many commentators have been claiming for years, the failings of the health system are not due to “chronic underfunding.” For this reason, the notion that lower taxes would…