Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, makes great movies but they are not generally considered "cliff-hangers." All that might change since a whistle-blower on the Democracy Now! news hour revealed that health insurance executives thought they may have to implement a plan "to push Moore off a cliff." The whistle-blower: Wendell Potter, the former chief spokesman for health insurance giant Cigna. He was quoting from an industry strategy session on how to respond to Moore's 2007 documentary Sicko, a film critical of the U.S. health insurance industry. Potter told me that he is not sure how serious the threat was but he added, ominously, "These companies play to win."
private health care
Nova Scotia: Health minister's optimism put to the test
It's been a year and a half since I left off writing about the crucial, politically charged and bureaucratically overwrought subject of health care, awaiting developments with the new government. Recently, I've been looking for signs of where we're at.
Leading Canada's public healthcare to the free-market guillotine
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.
A surprise delivery from Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to provincial finance ministers, over a fancy lunch-in at the Chateau Victoria Hotel this past Monday, the plan offers no space for negotiation toward collective national solutions for public healthcare.
Bad medicine from advisory panel at CMA annual meeting
Imagine you're feeling sick. You have an inexplicable pain in your stomach. So you go to your doctor, and she sends you for a test. The test for your stomach pain is inconclusive.
"I think I know what the problem is. And I probably have something I could give you for it," says your doctor. "How about you pay me an extra $50, and then we can discuss it further?"
Most of us would think that's unacceptable. We already pay taxes to finance our universal health care. We would want our doctors to run more tests, give us a diagnosis and write us a prescription.
January 20, 2011 |
A new CCPA study examines Health Canada’s harmonizing initiatives to date, part of the modernization initiative, and finds they have been putting private profit ahead of public health.
A health care debate: Would Canada benefit from further privatization of health care?
Oct 4 2010 - 7:00pm
Oct 4 2010 - 8:30pm
Location
Room 3154, Medical Sciences Bldg
1 King's College Circle
Toronto, ON Canada
43° 39' 40.7124" N, 79° 23' 38.922" W
See map: Google Maps
A Health Care Debate: Would Canada benefit from greater privatization of health care??
Featuring:
YES: Dr. William Orovan Urologist, Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery, McMaster University
Vs.
Contact name:
Ritika Goel
Contact email:
Medicare: Solutions From Within
May 15 2010 - 9:15am
May 15 2010 - 1:30pm
Location
Faculty of Law Building, Bennett Lecture Hall
78 Queen's Park Avenue (At Museum Station)
TorontoCanada
43° 39' 59.8968" N, 79° 23' 35.8728" W
See map: Google Maps
Medicare: Solutions From Within
Contact name:
Ritika Goel
Contact email: