Adrienne Silnicki

'Follow Sweden' on health care: Did the Fraser Institute finally get it right?

| May 23, 2013

If you are familiar with the work of the far right-leaning Fraser Institute, you'll hardly be surprised when I write that their latest piece of "research" is full of deceit.

The Fraser Institute claims to examine the Swedish health-care system and in the end concludes that Canada should scrap the Canada Health Act and privatize, privatize, privatize -- no surprise. In a particularly fascinating move, the Fraser Institute compares financial expenditures in both health-care systems and promotes the most expensive methods as a cost-saving measure in Canada -- huh?

Can New Brunswick afford a $715-million cut to medicare?

Adrienne Silnicki

| May 13, 2013

The Saint John Common Causes committee invited me to Saint John this week to offer a public talk on the current state of medicare and the 2014 Health Accord. I love being on the road because it offers me a chance to understand the challenges that each province faces with their health-care system and the successes and innovation that they've implemented to meet those challenges.

This week I spent time researching health care in New Brunswick, speaking with journalists and radio hosts, and talking to the community about their encounters with medicare.

The trouble with evidence: Cuts to the Health Council of Canada

Adrienne Silnicki

| April 23, 2013

The Council of Canadians is saddened by the news of the cuts to the Health Council of Canada. While some analysts are correct to point out that the HCC had little bite, the bark that they had was valued.

The Health Council of Canada reported annually on provinces and territories' progress with the benchmarks agreed to in the 2004 Health Accord. The HCC reported on Northern Canadians' experiences with accessing care, seniors care, access and wait times, electronic health records, and they condemned the increasing dependency of provinces on informal home care providers pointing out that the policy puts pressure on women and fails to provide support for caregivers. Most of all, they showed the growing inequality in access to health care services across Canada.

It's National Health Care Lobby Week!

Adrienne Silnicki

| April 9, 2013

Thanks to all of you that agreed to participate in the national health care lobby week! We have over 20 meetings with MPs scheduled and more being planned now! We also have several communities that have written letters to their MPs, opinion editorials to the newspaper, letters to the newspaper, or are meeting with MLAs/MPPs and provincial health ministers.

Meeting with our MPs in their constituency offices gives us an opportunity to drive home the point that medicare matters. We have well-rounded lobby teams of patients, health professionals, and individuals who care about universal health care and have incredible knowledge, experience and passion!

Wait times grow as we near the end of the 2004 Health Accord

Adrienne Silnicki

| March 20, 2013

A new report by the Canadian Institution for Health Information is showing that wait times were dropping for knee and hip surgeries in the years following the 2004 Health Accord.

Health care in our community: Why your MP wants to hear from you

Adrienne Silnicki

| March 18, 2013

Last week the Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers held a lunch and learn on Defending Social Programs for a Stronger Canada through activism. Megan Leslie, Halifax's MP was invited to speak and what she had to say was something I wish you all could have heard:

MPs are just members of your community. We don't have more power than you, we have different power. We have the privilege of presenting your concerns to the House of Commons. But we have so many balls in the air at one time that we can't be experts on everything. We need you to keep us informed. MPs rely on their community to keep them up to date.

Read more

The campaign to save medicare is in full swing. Next up: April Lobby Week!

Adrienne Silnicki

| March 7, 2013

The Council of Canadians and our medicare allies are organizing a national lobby the week of April 8 to ask members of Parliament to support the 2014 Health Accord.

So far the Harper government has ignored the call of premiers to talk about the state of health care in Canada. Instead, Min. Flaherty dictated to the premiers that the Canada Health Transfer will be cut by $36 billion after the next election (Budget 2016/2017).

Speaking out against two-tiered health care

Adrienne Silnicki

| February 26, 2013

Since 1996, Dr. Brian Day has been running the private Cambie Surgical Centre in Vancouver. For the past 17 years, Dr. Day has been illegally charging patients and the province and now he's taking the B.C. government to court.

Canada's health-care system is no longer portable

Adrienne Silnicki

| January 24, 2013

Change the conversation, support rabble.ca today.

On Monday, the Health Council of Canada (HCC) released a new report which rates Canada's health-care system by comparing it to nine other developed countries. The HCC sent out surveys to physicians throughout Canada and the nine other countries and asked primary care physicians to rate the system.

Canada doesn't do very well in this survey and we're shown to be below the average of these selected developed countries, in some cases by a far margin.

The differences between provinces include:

Six generic drugs to be commonly purchased, but we could do better

Adrienne Silnicki

| January 21, 2013

Change the conversation, support rabble.ca today.

The Council of the Federation's Health Innovation working group has just announced that six generic drugs have been chosen to be jointly purchased by provinces and territories. It has been estimated that this could save Canadians through their provincial drug insurance plans and out-of-pocket expenditures $100 million a year.

Adrienne Silnicki

Top Picks On rabble