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allow people to buy health insurance from a choice of up to 180 private insurers

Though there is a shortage of empirical evidence in any of the countries on what works, evidence suggests that such a system encourages patients and doctors to better manage their health, curbing the likelihood people will end up in an emergency ward or pricey acute-care hospital bed, the report said.

In practical terms, it means the economy is creating jobs - but not good ones. It means that consumers are relying on credit cards rather than wages to buy what they need. It means that entire sectors of the economy are out of whack. In Canada, this expresses itself as a reliance on notoriously volatile commodities such as oil. When oil and other commodity prices are up, Canada does OK. When they fall, as is happening now, the reverse occurs. In his stump speech, Mulcair rightly criticizes the Harper Conservatives for failing to pay enough attention to manufacturing. He is also correct when he says that too many of the jobs created are low wage and part time. But his solution to date - give tax breaks to small business and manufacturers - is singularly inadequate. Small businesses, almost by definition, require low-wage, part-time, non-union workers. Encouraging small business may create jobs. But most will be of the precarious variety that Mulcair decries.

Tax breaks to manufacturers, meanwhile, may encourage them to expand production - but only if they have customers willing to buy. As Mulcair correctly points out, too many corporations are refusing to reinvest their profits. Logically, that means government should take up the slack - even if this leads to fiscal deficits in the short term. But Mulcair pledged Tuesday that an NDP government would not run deficits. Trudeau is less categorical. He says a Liberal government would balance the books over the long haul. But, wisely, he has not ruled out deficit spending in the short run. Trudeau's real problem is that his solution to the crisis is also insufficient.

He says his Liberals would take money from the very-well-to-do and give it to those earning between roughly $50,000 and $200,000. Trudeau refers to this as helping the middle class. Making the rich pay is not a bad idea - although the economy would get more of a boost if the poor, who spend most of what they earn, received the money instead. But how would Trudeau lessen Canada's reliance on oil? How would he protect us from the kinds of shocks that roiled the world this week? How would he promote manufacturing or high-wage, new-technology industries? So far, the Liberals haven't said.

Finally, the Conservatives. Harper's party does not fit the cartoon stereotypes. It hasn't embraced the harsh austerity favoured in Europe. Rather, the Harper government has followed a kind of austerity-light regimen. It has penalized the unemployed but left welfare and medicare alone (although the Conservatives have said they will cut health spending if re-elected). Both opposition parties criticize the Conservatives for having run deficits since 2008. But given the weakness of the economy, it was the right thing to do. Arguably, Harper's real sin on this front was to move too quickly to balance the books. Still, the prime minister has much to answer for. One example: His government used the temporary worker program to suppress wages, relenting only when the politics became impossible. But his biggest mistake was to rely on oil. When petroleum prices were high and China booming, this was sufficient to hide the economy's fatal flaws. Now it is not. Thomas Walkom's columns appear in Torstar newspapers.

In Britain the coalition has mimicked this approach. Circle, backed by private equity firms, runs Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge.

Since 2010 private companies have had the right to set up large GP-style services

Corporates have set up 200 healthcare centres in two years, although critics point out that the majority have been in wealthier urban areas.

The Social Democrats, the main Swedish opposition party, have given up the idea of renationalising the health service and instead argue that profits should be capped and quality of care more tightly regulated.

more than 500 beds are being removed from the country's best known health centre, the Karolinska University hospital, and the services are being moved into the community to be run by private companies

a business-backed research institute, the Centre for Business and Policy Studies, looked at the privatisation of public services in Sweden and concluded that the policy had made no difference to the services' productivity. The academic author of the report, who stood by the findings, resigned after a public row.

Last year Stockholm county council, which controls healthcare for a fifth of the Swedish population, withdrew contracts from a private company after staff in a hospital were allegedly told to weigh elderly patients' incontinence pants to see if they were full or could be used for longer.

Swedish tax authorities are, however, taking some companies to court because pay in private equity groups is often linked to the profits made on deals and has been incorrectly taxed for years, it is said, at rates lower than that required for income in Sweden.

Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins predicted that the reduction in the annual "escalator" to three per cent would result in a "declining partnership." Yet considering Ottawa contributes only 23 per cent of the average provincial health budget, the three per cent difference in the annual "escalator" translates into a reduced rate of increase of only 0.69 per cent! Much of this is mere political bluster! Is it not finally time to revisit the Canada Health Act and fine-tune it?

As Konrad Yakabuski has stated (Globe and Mail, Oct. 19), "As long as the provinces remain bound by the Canada Health Act, which constrains their ability to dramatically alter the way health care is paid for and delivered, any new conditions on the use of federal transfers are only likely to further weigh down an already overly bureaucratic system."

When it was passed in 1984, it was understood that the federal government would pay half of health costs. Now it covers less than a quarter. Thanks to Ottawa's admission of refugees and migrants, overall growth of an aging, sicker population, new diseases, and new technologies, the provinces must shoulder an increasing burden.

Yet as Bacchus Barua (Ottawa Sun, Oct. 21) has stressed, more efficient health care systems in Europe allow a greater role for the private sector, use co-payments and user fees (with exemptions for the poor and elderly) and fund hospitals according to activity, not by global budgets, which have been frozen in many provinces.

MDs could be required to work - perhaps 25 to 30 hours per week - in the public system in order to receive government reimbursement for malpractice insurance. Most MDs would confine their practice to the public system. They deserve fair treatment. Thus Philpott should amend the CHA to mandate binding arbitration when provincial negotiations fail.

For those not a member of a "special group," the main option for timely care may be to go to the United States. This provides employment to American doctors and nurses and profits to U.S. hospitals. Would it not make more sense to allow all Canadians to spend their after-tax discretionary income on their own health in their own province?

Frozen hospital global budgets have caused excessive wait times for knee and hip replacements as operating rooms are often not functioning at full capacity. According to a 2013 survey, 15 per cent of Canadian surgeons considered themselves underemployed and 64 per cent cited poor access to ORs. Hence if orthopedic surgeons had access to additional "private" OR time, wait times could be shortened. If hospitals were permitted to operate electively on Americans and other foreign patients, this would bring in extra revenue for hospitals and relieve the strain on provincial health ministries.

Philpott has vowed to do more than just "open the federal wallet." She admits that "innovation" is required. Yet governments are being constrained by blindly adhering to certain parts of the CHA. Despite denials by politicians, a "two-tier" system has always existed. Federal prisoners, WSIB patients, members of the military and RCMP, politicians and professional athletes usually obtain more timely care - often at private facilities.

When the premiers meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December, besides discussing funding of the new Health Accord, they need to revisit the CHA and begin putting forth proposals as to how best to amend and modernize it. Where wait times are excessive, certain diagnostic services and surgical procedures should allow for private access for all Canadians - not just a select few.

This would utilize expensive equipment and provide new employment for nurses, technicians and surgeons. It would provide extra revenue - from both inside and outside the country - that would help to keep universal public health care sustainable and accessible for all Canadians. Ottawa should then enforce all sections of the CHA on all provinces and territories.

Ottawa physician Dr. Charles Shaver was born in Montreal. He graduated from Princeton University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is currently chair of the section on general internal medicine of the Ontario Medical Association.

By ANGELO PERSICHILLI

Monday, Oct. 17, 2016

TORONTO—A few weeks ago, Canadian consumers rejoiced because the cost of prescription drugs in Canada were lower than in the United States. But do they know that the cost of drugs in Canada is much higher than in most of the European countries?Laureano Leone, born in Italy, with a degree in pharmacy from the U.S., an Order of Canada, and experience as a former Ontario Liberal MPP, says that “it is unbelievable how our governments waste billions of dollars paying high prices for pharmaceuticals at the time when they close hospitals.”

Leone says that his findings have been validated by a renowned professor of York University, Joel Lexchin, and they “show that we are losing millions of dollars every day. Still there is refusal in recognition by the political establishment.”

Russia has a universal health care system, but it is by no means superior to that of the United States. Universality does not make our health care system better, just different.

In the 1980s, Bayer sold Factor VIII concentrate, a blood-clotting medicine acquired from Cutter Laboratories in 1978. Though Factor VIII carried a high risk of transmitting AIDS and Bayer knew, Bayer continued to sell the drug in Asia and Latin America while selling a new, safer product in the West.

takeover would dilute Bayer’s core drug business currently flush with sales of its blood-thinner Xarelto and Eylea, a drug to treat blindness.

Coalition Against Bayer Dangers

Bayer, a history of unsafe drugs

Monsanto’s first entry into Big Pharma.

Blood clotting drug spread AIDS

all three proposed mergers face antitrust reviews by agencies in the U.S., Europe and China,

In Hong Kong and Taiwan alone, more than 100 hemophiliacs got H.I.V. and “many have since died,” reported the New York Times. 

Statin Baycol recalled

In 2001, Bayer withdrew its lucrative new statin drug Baycol because more than 50 people had died and more than six million patients were at risk from the deadly side effects of rapidly dissolving of muscle tissue.

Yaz birth control pill causes deaths

Xarelto, shady approval of a dangerous drug

underreported bright side: Industries that are doing well generally spin off; industries that are performing poorly generally merge and consolidate.

Millions Against Monsanto movement,

Not a chance, On October 14-16, merged or not with Bayer, the OCA and the global grassroots will expose Monsanto’s crimes against humanity and the environment at the Monsanto Tribunal, a citizens’ tribunal which will take place in The Hague, Netherlands.