It would be interesting to know how much money is Funneling into election campaigns for all politicians by private (US) medical insurance companies. Break the health-care system and convince people that the system doesn't work, so privatization seems more palatable. This needs to be investigated.
I’d add the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion which states that there are:
Prerequisites for Health
The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites.
Wonderfully written and researched! I think healthcare privitization is the ultimate goal of Conservative premiers. There are billions to be made for insiders. You're argument that healthcare is an investment is close to what I believe too. Thinking about healthcare also as a right adds clarity for me. A right for each citizen that our governments can upkeep or, if we let them, let slip away.
We need a charter for health care in this country, proposed by the federal government (won't happen if PP is elected, obviously). Let the provinces explain to the public why they don't want to sign it. Health care funding by the provinces should be mandated.
The biggest issue, or better, "excuse" politicians and health administrators make is the fact that the pan-Canadian healthcare system consists of 14 separate institutions that cannot communicate or share resources due to some rather strict interpretations of the Constitution and what constitutes federal or provincial jurisdiction. These 2 solitudes of governance have been played by both provincial and federal politicians for decades, which hinders economies of scale and efficiencies. If the Carney Liberal government is now rapidly seeking and co-creating new institutions and "corridors" of free trade among and with the provinces and indigenous communities, this must also include health and social services.
I will ask you the question - efficiency for whom?
Doctors and nurses already can work in different provinces, and they do, but the idea of economies of scale or efficiencies in health care presumes that the problem can be resolved by reshuffling existing resources or people, which is just false.
Canada has nursing and physician shortages that are the result of 25 years of underinvestment in post-secondary training.
There are billions that can be saved through prevention (dentistry and pharmacare will make a difference) but many provinces have shortages, and this will result (as it tends to) in rich provinces stripping less-rich provinces of medical personnel.
Canada has free trade within the provinces. There are no tariffs and no barriers that be objectively measured.
The entire idea that the problem with our economy and our health care is that there is too much regulation, and too much government, after 50 years of tax cuts, austerity and privatization, and that we all just need to do more with less is pure conservative ideology and is not supported by facts and evidence. We've had decades of attempts at "efficiency" in health care which consists of starving it into a state of crisis.
I don't disagree with your viewpoint here and I don't mean to imply that we need to do more with less (or "let's run government like a business"). Yes, for sure, the key culprit is years of under investment. I was thinking more about the need for integrated information and communication technologies and systems that can promote a reduction of the provincial healthcare silos and barriers for sharing information. We cannot have a complex national healthcare system fully functioning on the Canada Health Act 5 pillars ( public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility) without this. Current institutions that govern public-private partnerships, ICT, data standards, knowledge translation and policies at both the federal and provincial levels are wholly inadequate and too dependent on private sector technology vendors and consulting firms. Frankly, I think the politicians and policy makers who literally get high on the lucrative KPMG Kool-Aid and scope creep for private healthcare entities who peddle virtual healthcare subscriptions (e.g. Maple Health) quite like it that way.
Are you actually Canadian? And actually know what you are talking about? Or just some weird pseudo human bot spewing bottom scrapped junk hoping for real world consumption?
Who are you asking this of? If you're asking of me - the Author, you could easily search me (Dougald Lamont) because there aren't many other people with that name. I am Canadian and I was an elected official in the Manitoba Legislature. I have about 35 years of experience in public policy research, and my first job in research was looking at federal provincial transfer payments which were for the support of provincial post-secondary education and health care. I was also the Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and had a number of critic roles as MLA for St Boniface, and have developed policy and legislation that has come to pass at the provincial and federal level, as well as lecturing at the university level in government-business relations in Canada.
We always knew Dougie was up to this nonsense. He just doesn't give a crap. Caught or not, he continues on his road, unchecked. I'd love to know where all the missing staff back payments are.
The conservative plan all along was to privatize healthcare in line with American corporate greed where you pay an insurance company fir coverage and then deny your claim for maximum profits. It's what drove Luigi to shoot a profiteer.
I remember being so frustrated with the federal Liberals for the silence about this. We all knew it was happening but it’s as if Trudeau wanted to manage it behind closed doors for some reason. The Liberals had the facts and they could have pushed that information out to the public. No one outside the government could have made a convincing argument because the data was not available. But federal insiders must have known. Provincial insiders would have had to sacrifice their jobs. Hopefully Carney will bring change. It’s the same kind of
politically motivated and misguided dishonesty that stops agriculture policy progress.
It would be interesting to know how much money is Funneling into election campaigns for all politicians by private (US) medical insurance companies. Break the health-care system and convince people that the system doesn't work, so privatization seems more palatable. This needs to be investigated.
Check in with the Smith gov in AB. Or, wait for the 4? current investigations underway concerning the AHS (Smith Government) procurement activity.
I’d add the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion which states that there are:
Prerequisites for Health
The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites.
As always Dougald you leave me enlightened and full of questions about our provincial government spending. I want to learn more. Thank you.
Pallister was evil incarnate
Wonderfully written and researched! I think healthcare privitization is the ultimate goal of Conservative premiers. There are billions to be made for insiders. You're argument that healthcare is an investment is close to what I believe too. Thinking about healthcare also as a right adds clarity for me. A right for each citizen that our governments can upkeep or, if we let them, let slip away.
Well researched, and clearly explained.
Thank you for your effort to educate and inform us!
We need a charter for health care in this country, proposed by the federal government (won't happen if PP is elected, obviously). Let the provinces explain to the public why they don't want to sign it. Health care funding by the provinces should be mandated.
The biggest issue, or better, "excuse" politicians and health administrators make is the fact that the pan-Canadian healthcare system consists of 14 separate institutions that cannot communicate or share resources due to some rather strict interpretations of the Constitution and what constitutes federal or provincial jurisdiction. These 2 solitudes of governance have been played by both provincial and federal politicians for decades, which hinders economies of scale and efficiencies. If the Carney Liberal government is now rapidly seeking and co-creating new institutions and "corridors" of free trade among and with the provinces and indigenous communities, this must also include health and social services.
I will ask you the question - efficiency for whom?
Doctors and nurses already can work in different provinces, and they do, but the idea of economies of scale or efficiencies in health care presumes that the problem can be resolved by reshuffling existing resources or people, which is just false.
Canada has nursing and physician shortages that are the result of 25 years of underinvestment in post-secondary training.
There are billions that can be saved through prevention (dentistry and pharmacare will make a difference) but many provinces have shortages, and this will result (as it tends to) in rich provinces stripping less-rich provinces of medical personnel.
Canada has free trade within the provinces. There are no tariffs and no barriers that be objectively measured.
The entire idea that the problem with our economy and our health care is that there is too much regulation, and too much government, after 50 years of tax cuts, austerity and privatization, and that we all just need to do more with less is pure conservative ideology and is not supported by facts and evidence. We've had decades of attempts at "efficiency" in health care which consists of starving it into a state of crisis.
I don't disagree with your viewpoint here and I don't mean to imply that we need to do more with less (or "let's run government like a business"). Yes, for sure, the key culprit is years of under investment. I was thinking more about the need for integrated information and communication technologies and systems that can promote a reduction of the provincial healthcare silos and barriers for sharing information. We cannot have a complex national healthcare system fully functioning on the Canada Health Act 5 pillars ( public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility) without this. Current institutions that govern public-private partnerships, ICT, data standards, knowledge translation and policies at both the federal and provincial levels are wholly inadequate and too dependent on private sector technology vendors and consulting firms. Frankly, I think the politicians and policy makers who literally get high on the lucrative KPMG Kool-Aid and scope creep for private healthcare entities who peddle virtual healthcare subscriptions (e.g. Maple Health) quite like it that way.
Why do people keep electing such parties and such leadership?!
Because our government is run by and for oligopolistic propertarians and rentiers.
Are you actually Canadian? And actually know what you are talking about? Or just some weird pseudo human bot spewing bottom scrapped junk hoping for real world consumption?
Who are you asking this of? If you're asking of me - the Author, you could easily search me (Dougald Lamont) because there aren't many other people with that name. I am Canadian and I was an elected official in the Manitoba Legislature. I have about 35 years of experience in public policy research, and my first job in research was looking at federal provincial transfer payments which were for the support of provincial post-secondary education and health care. I was also the Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and had a number of critic roles as MLA for St Boniface, and have developed policy and legislation that has come to pass at the provincial and federal level, as well as lecturing at the university level in government-business relations in Canada.
We always knew Dougie was up to this nonsense. He just doesn't give a crap. Caught or not, he continues on his road, unchecked. I'd love to know where all the missing staff back payments are.
The conservative plan all along was to privatize healthcare in line with American corporate greed where you pay an insurance company fir coverage and then deny your claim for maximum profits. It's what drove Luigi to shoot a profiteer.
I remember being so frustrated with the federal Liberals for the silence about this. We all knew it was happening but it’s as if Trudeau wanted to manage it behind closed doors for some reason. The Liberals had the facts and they could have pushed that information out to the public. No one outside the government could have made a convincing argument because the data was not available. But federal insiders must have known. Provincial insiders would have had to sacrifice their jobs. Hopefully Carney will bring change. It’s the same kind of
politically motivated and misguided dishonesty that stops agriculture policy progress.
Much appreciated.