Daily News Alerts
Joe Hornyak
Former editor of Benefits and Pensions Monitor and founder of Joe Hornyak Communications
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Canadians Divided Over Privatization
A study from Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians divided about privatization of Canada’s healthcare system and disagreement over how to define it. Canadians are of three mindsets about the prospect of increasing privatization in Canadian healthcare. It shows 39 per cent are ‘Public Health Purists’ who see little to no place for privatization and say any movement in this direction only exacerbates current challenges within the system. On the other end of the spectrum, 28 per cent are ‘Private Care Proponents’ who say increasing privatization is a necessary evolution in Canadian healthcare and are supportive of seeing a host of hybrid care options from other countries such as Australia, Germany, and Britain brought to their own provinces. In the middle are the ‘Curious but Hesitant’ at 33 per cent. They are sympathetic to elements of both sides of the debate. This group finds potential value in concepts such as contracting for-profit doctors to work in public facilities and paying for operations to be done in the private network through Medicare. They express deep concern, however, about just how far to go, citing concerns about the access of low-income Canadians and the potential exacerbating of staffing shortages. Ontario is the latest province to publicly fund surgeries at private clinics to help eliminate the lengthy wait lists caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alberta and Saskatchewan had previously done the same and 51 per cent of Canadians say this decision by these three provinces does constitute privatization. However, 33 per cent disagree.
Business Must Lead Mental Health Discourse
Mental Health International (MHI), with support from the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), is calling for Canada's science and business sectors to immediately lead the discourse and, more importantly, constructive action to advance human wellbeing through the quality of mental life in Canada. Its report ? ‘Mental Life in Canada,’ authored by Dr. Bill Wilkerson, MHI’s co-founder and chair-emeritus, proposes a unified approach to prevention through ‘The Science-Business Roundtable on the Quality of Mental Life in Canada.’ Joseph Ricciuti, chairman of MHI, says the report “argues in favour of human well-being as a unifying national goal. There is no question, no issue, no concern more unifying in Canada than the hunger for action to stem this tide of suffering." It says that human capital is now recognized for contributing to the asset value of publicly traded corporations, thereby strengthening the business investment case for mental health. As a result, tackling the costs and lost productive capacity due to mental disorders becomes a matter of prudent asset protection.
For details on these stories, visit www.bpmmagazine.com