8 January 2012, 10:16 PM
Today, I participated in a press conference at Toronto city Hall to highlight the health risks from the impending city budget cuts. The press conference was organized by Russ Ford, executive director of LAMP (Lakeshore Area Multiservice Project) and Dr. Roy Male a family doctor at Regent Park Community Health Centre also spoke. In my statement I had three messages for the Mayor and Council:
1. Toronto faces serious health issues now, before any cuts to existing programs
2. The proposed cuts would make the current situation worse
3. There are alternatives that must be considered before we compromise the health and well-being of Toronto’s citizens
Read the City report on proposed cuts. You can follow the ongoing coverage at the Toronto Star’s City budget site.
9 November 2010, 8:21 PM
I have an op ed in today’s Toronto Star on Medicare’s good run. The Canadian Institute for Health Information released their annual health spending numbers two weeks ago. Health care costs have decreased their share of the economy or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slightly in 2010 - from 11.9% in 2009 to 11.7% after shooting up from 10.7% in 2008. It turns out that almost the entire increase in 2009 was due to shrinkage in the economy not increased spending.
The graph below summarizes the Canadian spending data and indicates what the results would have been for 2009 and 2010 with 1998-2008 rates of economic growth. I have put together a few slides which summarize the new data for Canada and Ontario. Please use them and distribute them.
... read full post »
9 July 2010, 7:28 PM
Canadians tend to mock Americans’ ignorance of our country and the rest of the world. We do know more about their country than they know about ours. But we also tend to be unsophisticated when it comes to the rest of the world.
... read full post »
30 June 2010, 12:00 AM
We have been hearing a lot this year that Medicare is unsustainable. The usual claim is that health care used to be 35% of provincial program spending but now is 40%+ and will be 80% by 2030 according to the TD Bank’s economics department. There are so many problems with these projections the mind spins. And, while the mind spins one becomes intensely nauseated at the use of this misanalysis - which is usually used to support a dismantling (quickly or incrementally) of the principles of public finance and non profit delivery.
... read full post »
Filed under
Ontario health care
3 November 2009, 9:32 AM
Yesterday’s blog post has been edited and today is an op ed in the Toronto Star — How one Ontario community avoided chaos at H1N1 clinics. It is always a delight for me to highlight best practices in Canada’s health system and Sault Ste. Marie is full of them. See more about the Group Health Association health centre on pages 101-105 of Prescription for Excellence.
Filed under
Ontario health care
« Older posts
© Copyright 2002–2012 Michael Rachlis |
RSS
