When Politics Comes Before Patients

When Politics Comes Before Patients PDF Author: Shawn Whatley, MD
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 088890312X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
How Successive Governments Have Weakened the Foundation of All Canadian's Social and Economic Security At some point you will find yourself lying in a hospital bed. There is a good chance that your bed will be a firm, rubber pad held secure between two rails and parked along a corridor in a busy emergency department. Moans of “Nurse!” will echo from the beds ahead of you in line. Those pleas will fall largely on deaf ears. Your hospital is underfunded and understaffed. Welcome to the current reality of Medicare in the 21st century. Using searing analogies and first-hand accounts, Dr. Whatley makes the argument that the current Medicare system is unsustainable and unless critical choices and changes are made soon, the publicly funded, single-payer system in Canada will implode. Successive governments, regardless of political stripe, know all too well that Canada's system of health care is one of the defining characteristics of “being a Canadian”, and any changes deemed harmful will have them thrown out of power. Thus, decades of cuts around the margins, centralized control, federal/provincial infighting, and government oversight has left doctors and hospitals with little input on how your health dollars are allocated and spent. Citizens are being left to languish in pain for months, sometimes years, because the current cost and delivery system is programmed for the benefit of governments staying in power. That was not what was intended. Medicare should be about delivering high-quality and timely healthcare value for Canadians. This is not an easy fix. Treatment starts with a serious look at the disease, and Dr. Whatley pulls no punches. But what sounds like a radical new approach is neither new nor radical. He is not arguing for the end of Medicare per se but is making the case to let medical professionals — those providing the services — become equal partners in its design, implementation and delivery.

Canadian Medicare

Canadian Medicare PDF Author: Stephen Duckett
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773588221
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Medicare has been a crucial part of Canadian identity for nearly fifty years, and it stands in marked contrast to the US health system. But these facts alone do not protect it from dismissive swipes and criticisms, claims that the system is unsustainable, and even proposals to change medicare's fundamentals. In Canadian Medicare, Stephen Duckett and Adrian Peetoom show that the shared values underpinning medicare still provide a sound basis for the system's design. While medicare remains an important pillar of Canadian policy, changes can and must be made. The authors argue for improved primary care to better address increases in chronic diseases, a comprehensive strategy to provide care for the elderly, and the introduction of pharmacare. They demonstrate how, with proper investment, the health of Canadians can be maintained and even enhanced while the nation remains financially responsible. Accessibly written and clearly presented, Canadian Medicare is a call for Canadian citizens to improve on the foundation built by Tommy Douglas and Lester B. Pearson, to become more knowledgeable about their health care, and to let their politicians know that they need to act.

When Politics Comes Before Patients

When Politics Comes Before Patients PDF Author: Shawn Whatley, MD
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 088890312X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
How Successive Governments Have Weakened the Foundation of All Canadian's Social and Economic Security At some point you will find yourself lying in a hospital bed. There is a good chance that your bed will be a firm, rubber pad held secure between two rails and parked along a corridor in a busy emergency department. Moans of “Nurse!” will echo from the beds ahead of you in line. Those pleas will fall largely on deaf ears. Your hospital is underfunded and understaffed. Welcome to the current reality of Medicare in the 21st century. Using searing analogies and first-hand accounts, Dr. Whatley makes the argument that the current Medicare system is unsustainable and unless critical choices and changes are made soon, the publicly funded, single-payer system in Canada will implode. Successive governments, regardless of political stripe, know all too well that Canada's system of health care is one of the defining characteristics of “being a Canadian”, and any changes deemed harmful will have them thrown out of power. Thus, decades of cuts around the margins, centralized control, federal/provincial infighting, and government oversight has left doctors and hospitals with little input on how your health dollars are allocated and spent. Citizens are being left to languish in pain for months, sometimes years, because the current cost and delivery system is programmed for the benefit of governments staying in power. That was not what was intended. Medicare should be about delivering high-quality and timely healthcare value for Canadians. This is not an easy fix. Treatment starts with a serious look at the disease, and Dr. Whatley pulls no punches. But what sounds like a radical new approach is neither new nor radical. He is not arguing for the end of Medicare per se but is making the case to let medical professionals — those providing the services — become equal partners in its design, implementation and delivery.

Treating Health Care

Treating Health Care PDF Author: Raisa Deber
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487513461
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Canada has been among the world leaders in recognizing the multiple factors that impact health. Focusing on Canada’s health care system, Raisa B. Deber provides brief descriptions of some key facts and concepts necessary to understand health care policy in Canada and place it in an international context. An accessible guide, Treating Health Care unpacks key concepts to provide informed discussions that help us understand and diagnose Canada’s health care system and to clarify which proposed changes are likely to improve it - and which are not. This book provides background information to clarify such concepts as: determinants of health; how health systems are organized and financed (including international comparisons); health economics; health ethics; and roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, including government, providers, and patients. It then addresses some key issues, including equity, efficiency, access and wait times, quality improvement and patient safety, and coverage and payment models. Using analysis rather than advocacy, Deber provides a toolkit to help understand health care and health policy.

Making Medicare

Making Medicare PDF Author: Gregory P. Marchildon
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442613459
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This collection fills a serious gap in the existing literature by providing a comprehensive policy history of Medicare in Canada.

Universal Health Care

Universal Health Care PDF Author: Pat Armstrong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565845152
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
A powerful argument for a new health-care system.

Medicare's Histories

Medicare's Histories PDF Author: Esyllt W. Jones
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
ISBN: 0887552846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Medicare is arguably Canada’s most valued social program. As federally-supported medicare enters its second half-century, Medicare’s Histories brings together leading social and health historians to reflect on the origins and evolution of medicare and the missed opportunities characterizing its past and present. Embedding medicare in the diverse constituencies that have given it existence and meaning, contributors inquire into the strengths and weaknesses of publicly insured health care and critically examine medicare’s unfinished role in achieving greater health equity for all people in Canada regardless of race, status, gender, class, age, and ability. Fundamental to the stories told in Medicare’s Histories is the essential role played by communities ¬– of activists, critics, health professionals, First Nations, patients, families, and survivors – in driving demands for health reform, in identifying particular omissions and inequities exacerbated or even created by medicare, and in responding to the realities of medicare for those who work in and rely on it. Contributors to this volume show how medicare has been shaped by politics (in the broadest sense of that word), identities, professional organizations, and social movements in Canada and abroad. As COVID lays bare social inequities and the inadequacies of health care delivery and public health, this book shows what was excluded and what was – and is – possible in health care.

When Politics Comes Before Patients

When Politics Comes Before Patients PDF Author: Shawn Whatley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780888903259
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
How Successive Governments Have Weakened the Foundation of All Canadian's Social and Economic Security At some point, you will find yourself lying in a hospital bed. There is a good chance that your bed will be a firm, rubber pad held secure between two rails and parked along a corridor in a busy emergency department. Moans of "Nurse!" will echo from the beds ahead of you in line. Those pleas will fall largely on deaf ears. Your hospital is underfunded and understaffed. Welcome to the current reality of Medicare in the 21st century. Using searing analogies and first-hand accounts, Dr. Whatley makes the argument that the current Medicare system is unsustainable and unless critical choices and changes are made soon, the publicly funded, single-payer system in Canada will implode. Successive governments, regardless of political stripe, know all too well that Canada's system of health care is one of the defining characteristics of "being a Canadian", and any changes deemed harmful will have them thrown out of power. Thus, decades of cuts around the margins, centralized control, federal/provincial infighting, and government oversight has left doctors and hospitals with little input on how your health dollars are allocated and spent. Citizens are being left to languish in pain for months, sometimes years, because the current cost and delivery system is programmed for the benefit of governments staying in power. That was not what was intended. Medicare should be about delivering high-quality and timely healthcare value for Canadians. This is not an easy fix. Treatment starts with a serious look at the disease, and Dr. Whatley pulls no punches. But what sounds like a radical new approach is neither new nor radical. He is not arguing for the end of Medicare per se but is making the case to let medical professionals - those providing the services - become equal partners in its design, implementation and delivery. Praise for When Politics Comes Before Patients "In Canada, socialized medicine has been exalted to the status of a sacrament, and to criticize it, either in theory or in practice, is tantamount to heresy. Dr. Whatley dares to do both, and with such clarity of argument and abundance of evidence, that no reasonable or fair-minded person could fail to be convinced. What Dr. Whatley has demonstrated, in this beautifully written and engaging volume, is that socialized medicine fails to meet the most fundamental moral obligation of health care: to place the patient's interests above all else." Dr. Harley Price, University of Toronto "Whatley... insists that our focus should be on the patients, the people the system is supposed to serve but whose interests are too easily sacrificed in the name of some pretty but ineffectual or even destructive bureaucratic theory. I have been thinking about the health care system for thirty years yet I found Whatley's book packed with new insights and courageous thinking. A cure for what ails us." Brian Lee Crowley, Managing Director, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute "When you are getting a diagnosis from your doctor, you want the truth. If you want a truthful diagnosis of our health care system, you must read this book. With precision, wisdom, and verve, Dr. Shawn Whatley has fearlessly dissected the rot that plagues Canadian socialized medicine. Can you handle the truth?" Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law, Queen's University

Canadian Medicare

Canadian Medicare PDF Author: Stephen Duckett
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773541543
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
A rousing call to continue Canada's public health insurance program rather than rely on private insurance.

Where to from Here?

Where to from Here? PDF Author: Stephen Duckett
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 155339514X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Universal healthcare, perhaps the most distinguishing feature of Canada's public policy, is under fire, criticized for its heavy expense and questionable sustainability. In Where to From Here?: Keeping Medicare Sustainable, Stephen Duckett defends Canadian Medicare, addressing key concerns and refuting criticism, while also acknowledging flaws in the system and room for improvement. Duckett argues that while the fundamentals of Medicare are sound, a great deal of change is necessary to keep it sustainable. This book envisions a Medicare that is not static and simply responsive to problems, but an active, shifting system that keeps up with the evolving needs of a rapidly changing time. Duckett systematically lays out proposals for incremental change across a range of areas including primary care, hospitals, and the health workforce. Where to From Here? Presents an unflinching defense of one of Canada's iconic policies, while keeping a clear eye on the future of the nation's health.

Miracle Cure

Miracle Cure PDF Author: Sally Pipes
Publisher: The Fraser Institute
ISBN: 0936488921
Category : Health care reform
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
America has wealth, innovation, and access to the best of everything. So why is our health-care system so broken? Why does it cost more than ever and deliver less? How do we solve the problems of the uninsured and seniors who lack drug coverage? And equally important, why is the Canadian system, widely touted as a sparkling example of compassion and universal access, actually a disastrous model to be avoided?