That 3.6 million Canadians do not have a family doctor is a national disgrace, one that could have been avoided if politicians and health authorities had been listening to the public.
Category Archives: Health care allowances
Romanow’s nether regions
Roy Romanow recommends expanding medical services to rural communities to address the appallingly poor health of rural Canadians. This recommendation, he says, conforms to his goal of being “evidence-based and values-driven.”
The phoney MSA debate
The debate over medical savings accounts (MSAs) – the proposal to have government give each Canadian an annual health allowance to cover routine health needs – has largely been fought on economic grounds. Continue reading The phoney MSA debate
Empowerment is the best medicine
Does a positive mental attitude help patients beat cancer?
Medical savings accounts live
In a sound publicly funded medical savings account system, Canadians would receive annual health allowances based on their age and sex as well as their medical condition. These allowances, which would exceed their expected medical needs, would in most years allow Canadians to save money, which they could then use to meet medical needs that they now often cannot afford, such as prescription drugs and home care. And the system would cost the government no more than the current medicare system.
Rise of a ‘zombie’
Put yourself in the shoes of Raisa Deber, a professor of health policy at University of Toronto and one of the medical establishment’s leading strategists and defenders of medicare as we know it. Imagine that, like her, you are rock-sure of your position. And that your peers in Canada’s medical establishment – academics and administrators who have the ear of government bureaucrats – overwhelmingly share your perspective, particularly about the evils of anything that smacks of private sector involvement in health care.
Medical savings accounts would benefit all Canadians
Roy Romanow, Canada’s one-man health commission, believes that the poor need good health care and that any reform of Canada’s health care system must provide it to them.
Continue reading Medical savings accounts would benefit all Canadians
Medicare debit cards
Next Thursday, on Jan. 24, all of Canada’s premiers will gather together in Vancouver to act upon what the pacesetter among them, Alberta’s Ralph Klein, will have decided on Wednesday, Jan. 23 about the future of medicare. Continue reading Medicare debit cards
Close health care gap with allowances
Doctors, lawyers and other professionals aren’t as healthy, and don’t live as long, as those who occupy even higher rungs on the socio-economic ladder. Neither do the children of doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Continue reading Close health care gap with allowances
Fyke report’s missing link: health-care allowances
Saskatchewan’s Commission on Medicare brutally described the country’s health-care system last week in its report, Sustaining a Quality System.
Continue reading Fyke report’s missing link: health-care allowances
Consumer Policy Institute 