Thisweek’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Essential medicines is a human rights issue
“What are the essential treatments for the widest possible categories of needs that we can fund as a country? And that’s the idea behind essential medicines… If you’re going to ask what the next stage is, it’s [to] focus on essential medicines as a human rights issue,” said Steve Morgan, a professor of health policy at the University of British Columbia, to The Hill Times, April 29, 2024
Steven Staples, National Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition, said:
“We’re encouraged by Minister Holland’s comments that he’s willing to start talking to provinces now while the legislation is still going through its process. That’s encouraging—that there’s a sense of urgency to get some agreements in place and start rolling it out…. what we’d want to see is the list of medications covered under the program to become more comprehensive to include other areas because there’s other patient groups and other diseases that require the same attention as these, and I’m thinking particularly heart diseases, stroke [and] cancer.”
“Nowhere in the pharmacare legislation is there any mention of abolishing workplace health benefits or private drug plans, which Canadians will be able to continue to use. In fact, pharmacare would mean the government can negotiate drug prices in bulk—which is why every serious estimate has shown that Canadians would end up with better coverage at lower cost,” wrote Marting Lukacs, in The Breach, April 24, 2024
Four pharmacare asks from two foundations – Cancer Society and Heart and Stroke Foundation
“Time is of the essence, and we have four critical asks. Our first is that Parliament makes it a priority to pass the pharmacare legislation before it adjourns for the summer. Second, we ask all provincial and territorial governments to sign on to new bilateral agreements with Ottawa before the end of the year. The pharmacare legislation enables the creation of these new agreements through which federal funding would flow to expand prescription coverage. Third, the federal government must immediately appoint a committee of experts—including those from the cancer and cardiovascular diseases communities—to build the pharmacare program. Fourth, we need the expansion of pharmacare to cover prescriptions for cardiovascular and cancer drugs. An expanded pharmacare framework offers a lifeline for millions of people in Canada. It is time for federal, provincial, and territorial governments to deliver it.”—said Andrea Seale, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society and Doug Roth, CEO at Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, The Hill Times Health Policy Briefing, April 29, 2024, page 20
Listen to the strong voices of nurses
“For too long, nurses have been silenced, overlooked and underappreciated. Nurses have been given limited autonomy in health care decision-making and around the political table. We saw this play out at the beginning of the pandemic: Task forces, committees and panels were created to tackle issues related to short staffing, pandemic preparedness and policy change and design. Many physicians, scientists and politicians sat at these tables. Although nurses are considered the largest group of public-health-sector workers – and have a constant presence at patients’ bedsides, seeing and intimately understanding when an approach to patient care works and when it doesn’t – there were few, if any, nurses at these task-force tables. . .A new movement is starting – one in which nurses are determined and demanding to be heard. . .We need to shift the public perception of nursing, moving away from the idea that nurses are angelic saviours and instead recognizing nurses and health workers with agency,” said Amie Archibald-Varley and Sara Fung, nurses and co-hosts of The Gritty Nurse podcast, The Globe and Mail, April 29, 2024
Thinking ahead: Health care and climate disaster
“The public health audience can appreciate the profound effects of climate change on a wide range of physical and mental health impacts, and indeed the health and well-being of our communities. . . (Those effects include) infectious diseases, water-borne diseases, respiratory and cardiovascular problems, heat strokes, dehydration and mental health impacts that are affecting all populations,” said Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, to CBC Nova Scotia, April 25, 2024
U.S. study credits female docs with lower death rates
“For every 420 hospitalizations, one fewer death will occur when female physicians provide care, as opposed to when male physicians treat patients. And given that more than four million hospitalizations for medical conditions happen every year in the U.S., this difference is pretty big if you take into account the population level,” said Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, associate professor-in-residence of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, to Global News, April 24, 2024
From the Parliamentary Health Committee Chair: lack of data across provinces and territories
“One major gap that health providers have identified in testimony before the House Health Committee has been the lack of high-quality, comparable data across provinces and territories. The lack of information means that we do not have a pan-Canadian snapshot of the situation on the ground, and are thus unable to develop solutions that work in every jurisdiction,” said Sean Casey, Liberal MP representing Charlottetown, PEI, to The Hill Times, April 24, 2024
Ontario Health Coalition finds patients paying dearly for private health care
“I was informed the cost to receive the surgery would be almost $7,000. Being as I live alone, I did not want to lose my quality of life. Therefore, I paid the $7,000. Being a senior on a fixed income, I am still trying to catch up with bills from this surgery,” said Maureen Monro who reported being told she would have to wait two years unless she paid thousands of dollars for cataract surgery in a story about the release of the Ontario Health Coalition’s report, Illegal, Unlawful and Unethical: Case Studies of Patients Charged for Medical Care in Ontario’s Private Clinics, by Global News, April 24, 2024
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Pat Van Horne represents the United Steelworkers on the Canadian Health Coalition’s Board of Directors. She compiles the weekly Health files for the coalition’s e-newsletter.
