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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saskatchewan's municipal doctors: A forerunner of the medicare system that developed 50 years later
By C. Stuart Houston, MD
CAN MED ASSOC JOURNAL
1994
Saskatchewan, a far-flung, agrarian and thinly populated province, was the first jurisdiction in Canada to employ municipal doctors and municipal hospitals, and the only province where the system was widely adopted. Why and how did Saskatchewan come to lead North America in introducing these important milestones on the road to medicare?
One answer lies in the cooperative spirit that developed as a way of coping with the exigencies of rural life. Communities came together for barn raisings and, later, to build skating rinks and curling rinks. Extending this spirit of cooperation to the provision of health care was a natural outgrowth, especially since people widely scattered in a new land had a hard time finding medical services.
Read more HERE. (pdf)
CAN MED ASSOC JOURNAL
1994
One answer lies in the cooperative spirit that developed as a way of coping with the exigencies of rural life. Communities came together for barn raisings and, later, to build skating rinks and curling rinks. Extending this spirit of cooperation to the provision of health care was a natural outgrowth, especially since people widely scattered in a new land had a hard time finding medical services.
Read more HERE. (pdf)
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Health Minister’s ‘what would Tommy do?’ rationale misses mark
By Robert Matas
Globe and Mail
Dec. 28, 2011
“I’m not certain Tommy Douglas had in mind free parking when he talked about universal publicly funded health care,” Health Minister Mike de Jong says in a year-end interview in the Vancouver Sun.
Tommy Douglas is a library in Burnaby, a collegiate in Saskatoon, a street in Côte Saint-Luc and a townhouse development in Toronto. Corner Gas fans know the politician who introduced universal publicly financed medicare to Canada as the advocate for free coffee refills.
“You’re not in Toronto any more, Lacey, with your grande-mocha-dappo-loppa-frappochinos,” Brent said during an episode in the first season. “This is Saskatchewan. Tommy Douglas fought the federal government for free refills on coffee.”
Globe and Mail
Dec. 28, 2011
“I’m not certain Tommy Douglas had in mind free parking when he talked about universal publicly funded health care,” Health Minister Mike de Jong says in a year-end interview in the Vancouver Sun.Tommy Douglas is a library in Burnaby, a collegiate in Saskatoon, a street in Côte Saint-Luc and a townhouse development in Toronto. Corner Gas fans know the politician who introduced universal publicly financed medicare to Canada as the advocate for free coffee refills.
“You’re not in Toronto any more, Lacey, with your grande-mocha-dappo-loppa-frappochinos,” Brent said during an episode in the first season. “This is Saskatchewan. Tommy Douglas fought the federal government for free refills on coffee.”
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Four comments on Harper's attack on health care
Is Money Enough? The Meaning of 6% and Flaherty’s Health “Plan”
By Armine YalnizyanProgressive Economics Forum
December 21st, 2011
Read more HERE.
Attacking our health care is un-Canadian
The Citizen December 21, 2011
The agenda for the federal Conservatives with regard to health care transfer payments is quite simple. They want to force privatization of our health care system by starving it of the funds it needs to keep going.
Read more HERE.
Leading Canada's public healthcare to the free-market guillotine
By Stefan ChristoffRabble.ca
December 22, 2011
National discussion in Canada on the Conservative government's new healthcare financial ultimatum, a take-it-or-leave-it-style proposal, largely revolves around myths. First that financing alone is key to securing a sustainable public healthcare system and second that free-market economic winds will provide sustainable guidelines, via GDP, for viable future government healthcare financing.
Read more HERE.
Feds walk away from health care reform
December 21, 2011Council of Canadians
The Harper government let down millions of Canadians this week by effectively walking away from the opportunity to craft a 2014 Health Accord that brings real reform to our health care system.
Read more HERE.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Thompson Committee (1960–62) and Saskatchewan Medicare
By C. Stuart Houston
Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
The Advisory Planning Committee on Medical Care consisted of twelve members: its Chair, Dr. W.P. Thompson, recently retired as president of the University of Saskatchewan; Beatrice Trew and Cliff Whiting (representing the people of the province); Drs. J.F.C. Anderson, E.W. Barootes, and C.J. Houston (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan); Dr. I.M. Hilliard (College of Medicine); Donald McPherson (Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce); W.E. Smishek (Saskatchewan Federation of Labour); and Dr. V.L. Matthews, former Health Minister T.J. Bentley, and Deputy Minister of Public Health Dr. F.B. Roth (the last three representing the government of Saskatchewan). John E. Sparks served as the non-voting secretary. Six of the twelve members were medical doctors.
The committee received its instructions on April 26, 1960, and deliberations began on May 9. The committee held 23 meetings for a total of 43 days; it conducted 33 public and 7 private hearings, analysed 50 study documents, and received 1,226 pages of documentation in 49 briefs. Teams of committee members visited health care programs in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The committee was instructed to report to Walter Erb, Minister of Public Health, on “the extent of public need in the various fields of health care as related to a medical care program,” following the broadest possible interpretation. They studied in detail the doctor-sponsored plans (GMS and MSI), municipal doctor plans, the plan for public assistance recipients, as well as existing mental health, cancer and tuberculosis programs.
Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
 |
| Dr. W. P. Thompson |
The committee received its instructions on April 26, 1960, and deliberations began on May 9. The committee held 23 meetings for a total of 43 days; it conducted 33 public and 7 private hearings, analysed 50 study documents, and received 1,226 pages of documentation in 49 briefs. Teams of committee members visited health care programs in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The committee was instructed to report to Walter Erb, Minister of Public Health, on “the extent of public need in the various fields of health care as related to a medical care program,” following the broadest possible interpretation. They studied in detail the doctor-sponsored plans (GMS and MSI), municipal doctor plans, the plan for public assistance recipients, as well as existing mental health, cancer and tuberculosis programs.
Bad medicine: Harper's prescription for privatization Medicare
By Jesse McLaren
Rabble.ca
The Harper government has announced a new funding arrangement for Medicare, which after 2016 will be tied to economic growth in the nominal GDP. According to one estimate, this will translate into $21 billion in cuts to health-care funding over 10 years. By unilaterally imposing health-care funding cuts on the provinces, the Harper government is putting its own brand on a familiar prescription for privatization: scapegoat Medicare, ignore private health costs, pretend you don't have any money, and then cut public health care to encourage privatization.
1. Scapegoat Medicare
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, fresh off his attack on Muslim women, was the first Tory to open the campaign against Medicare -- scapegoating it for cuts to social services. Suddenly a public education advocate, he claimed that public health-care costs are soaring and devouring provincial budgets. Kenney stated that, "For some of the provinces, if they continue in that trajectory, there will be nothing left for education, for universities, for anything else."
Rabble.ca
December 21, 2011
The Harper government has announced a new funding arrangement for Medicare, which after 2016 will be tied to economic growth in the nominal GDP. According to one estimate, this will translate into $21 billion in cuts to health-care funding over 10 years. By unilaterally imposing health-care funding cuts on the provinces, the Harper government is putting its own brand on a familiar prescription for privatization: scapegoat Medicare, ignore private health costs, pretend you don't have any money, and then cut public health care to encourage privatization.1. Scapegoat Medicare
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, fresh off his attack on Muslim women, was the first Tory to open the campaign against Medicare -- scapegoating it for cuts to social services. Suddenly a public education advocate, he claimed that public health-care costs are soaring and devouring provincial budgets. Kenney stated that, "For some of the provinces, if they continue in that trajectory, there will be nothing left for education, for universities, for anything else."
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Saskatchewan's Medical Care Insurance Act 1961
Medicare: A People's Issue
Throughout 1961, the proposed medical care plan remained the top political issue in Saskatchewan. To fulfill its promise of consultation, the government created the Advisory Planning Commission on Medical Care, mandated “to study and report upon a medical care insurance program for the province and on the public need in other fields of health.”
The former President of the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. W.P. Thompson, was invited to act as chair. It was an onerous job, made especially difficult by the attitude of the medical members of the committee. 49 briefs of more than 1,200 pages were submitted by individuals and groups from across the province. In September of 1961 the Committee produced an Interim Report which recommended:
Ten days before the Act was to be given Royal assent, Douglas turned over the reins of government to the steady but less than charismatic former Minister of Education, W.S. Lloyd.
Douglas’s decades’ old dream of a universal medical care plan seemed complete as he left provincial politics to run for the national leadership of the newly-created New Democratic Party (NDP). The Act was set to become law on July 1, 1962. Two camps, the government in one and the doctors in the other, took uncompromising positions that would eventually lead to crisis and strike.
Click Above to Read
The former President of the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. W.P. Thompson, was invited to act as chair. It was an onerous job, made especially difficult by the attitude of the medical members of the committee. 49 briefs of more than 1,200 pages were submitted by individuals and groups from across the province. In September of 1961 the Committee produced an Interim Report which recommended:
- Universal coverage for all residents.
- Comprehensive benefits based on residence, registration and payment of personal premiums with additional finances to be drawn from general government revenues.
- Utilization fees.
- Fee-for-service payment.
- The creation of a commission responsible to the government to administer the plan.
Ten days before the Act was to be given Royal assent, Douglas turned over the reins of government to the steady but less than charismatic former Minister of Education, W.S. Lloyd.
Douglas’s decades’ old dream of a universal medical care plan seemed complete as he left provincial politics to run for the national leadership of the newly-created New Democratic Party (NDP). The Act was set to become law on July 1, 1962. Two camps, the government in one and the doctors in the other, took uncompromising positions that would eventually lead to crisis and strike.
Click Above to Read
Passive-aggressive Tories tackle health funding
By Karl Nerenberg
Rabble.ca
December 20, 2011
In the 1960s, when Canada’s universal healthcare system first got underway, between 40 and 50 cents out of every dollar provinces spent on health care was federal. The rest came from the provinces’ own coffers.
Today the federal figure is around 21 per cent; the rest, nearly 80 per cent, is provincially collected money.
It is not the same for every province. For British Columbia, for instance, the federal contribution is less than 15 per cent. And the federal figures do not include equalization payments, of which some can be assumed to go to healthcare.
What is clear, though, is that there has been a fairly steady decline in federal participation in health funding over the years.
Rabble.ca
December 20, 2011
In the 1960s, when Canada’s universal healthcare system first got underway, between 40 and 50 cents out of every dollar provinces spent on health care was federal. The rest came from the provinces’ own coffers.Today the federal figure is around 21 per cent; the rest, nearly 80 per cent, is provincially collected money.
It is not the same for every province. For British Columbia, for instance, the federal contribution is less than 15 per cent. And the federal figures do not include equalization payments, of which some can be assumed to go to healthcare.
What is clear, though, is that there has been a fairly steady decline in federal participation in health funding over the years.
Why the Harper funding diktat endangers medicare
By Thomas Walkom
TheSun.com
Tue Dec 20 2011
For medicare, the federal government’s new health financing ultimatum is a clear and deliberate step backward.
By scaling back cash contributions to provincial medicare plans, it will gradually and inevitably destroy Ottawa’s ability to enforce the Canada Health Act.
By tying these contributions to the vagaries of the overall economy, it will make it harder for provinces to forge long-term health-care strategies.
And by cutting back health spending during slump periods, it will remove money and jobs from health care precisely at those times when they are needed most.
TheSun.com
Tue Dec 20 2011
For medicare, the federal government’s new health financing ultimatum is a clear and deliberate step backward.By scaling back cash contributions to provincial medicare plans, it will gradually and inevitably destroy Ottawa’s ability to enforce the Canada Health Act.
By tying these contributions to the vagaries of the overall economy, it will make it harder for provinces to forge long-term health-care strategies.
And by cutting back health spending during slump periods, it will remove money and jobs from health care precisely at those times when they are needed most.
Harper government attacks public health care
By James Clancy
NUPGE News
December 20, 2011
"Once again, the Harper government has shown that it prefers to dictate rather than negotiate," said James Clancy, NUPGE National President.
"Their unilateral decision to cutback billions of dollars in health transfer payments will have serious negative consequences in terms of the accessibility and quality of health care across the country."
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) says the announcement by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) further demonstrates the Harper government's disdain for democracy and a total lack of leadership on health care.
At a meeting of Finance Ministers from across the country, Flaherty announced that the federal government would extend the 6 per cent escalator clause, part of the 2004 Health Accord, for the CHT only until the 2016-17 fiscal year. After that, until at least 2024, annual increases in the CHT will be tied to nominal GDP growth.
NUPGE News
December 20, 2011
"Once again, the Harper government has shown that it prefers to dictate rather than negotiate," said James Clancy, NUPGE National President.
"Their unilateral decision to cutback billions of dollars in health transfer payments will have serious negative consequences in terms of the accessibility and quality of health care across the country."
At a meeting of Finance Ministers from across the country, Flaherty announced that the federal government would extend the 6 per cent escalator clause, part of the 2004 Health Accord, for the CHT only until the 2016-17 fiscal year. After that, until at least 2024, annual increases in the CHT will be tied to nominal GDP growth.
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