The Remaining Light is a documentary film that journeys through an often invisible part of Canada's health care system -- the community-based services that provide care to seniors as they age and die. The film features the stories of seniors and their families, and explores themes related to dignity, preventing illness and social isolation, and keeping health care costs under control as the boomer generation ages. The Remaining Light is set in BC, where the province's Ombudsperson is carrying out an investigation into a fragmented and underfunded system of seniors care.
Health, health care system, pharmacare
OTTAWA—As Health Canada begins its final consultations on proposals to “modernize” standards on prescription drugs, a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) finds Health Canada’s harmonizing initiatives to date, part of the modernization initiative, have been putting private profit ahead of public health.
According to the study, by Dr. Joel Lexchin, harmonizing standards on drug regulation among countries could bring important benefits to Canada—but only if harmonization is to the highest standards.
Critics on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border are slamming a plan by Bruce Power, Canada’s private nuclear generating company, to ship 3,500 tonnes of nuclear waste through Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden for metals recycling, beginning this fall.
In a recent editorial (“Aboriginal HIV Rates Disturbing”) the Winnipeg Free Press expressed concern about the rising incidence of HIV infection in, among other places, Winnipeg’s inner city. There, “social and economic conditions make people easy prey” for HIV infection. The editorial called for a “vigorous response” to these problems.
The OECD’s latest report on Canada’s economy emphasizes the challenge of rising healthcare costs. It contains several propositions, but only three have received media coverage and acclaim. These are that current trends are “unsustainable”, and that solutions lie in user fees and further privatization.
The current system for buying prescription drugs in Canada is a hybrid system of multiple public and private drug plans. This system is totally dysfunctional, for many reasons. The diversity of drug plans means that Canadians are covered for their drugs according to which province they live, or where they work, but not necessarily according to their medical needs.
The main argument that is typically made against the establishment of universal Pharmacare is economic in nature. This report shows that the economic argument in favour of such a program is loud and clear, regardless of which industrial policy is subsequently considered. Canadians could save between 10% and 42%—up to $10.7 billion—of total drug expenditures.