Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from January 2000

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from January 2000

A Premier's Prescription.
January 1, 2000... One man who hopes to be Canada's prime minister one day says it's time for Medicare to receive an injection of money "Here is the truth as I know it... governments everywhere today in Canada are presiding over the death of Medicare."...

Bruised and Bleeding.
January 1, 2000... In 1998, the Canadian Medical Association delivered a blistering critique of the country's health-care system: "For a decade, Canada's health-care system has been battered by waves of reform. Those changes have stirred a crisis of confidence...

The Forgotten People?
January 1, 2000... Except for the criminally insane, institutional care is very hard to come By for people with mental health problems, so many are smelling the ranks of the homeless and filling up hostels There are more than a few stories of awful tragedies...

Chicken Soup and TLC.
January 1, 2000... Four out of five Canadians believe home care should be a free, universal health-care program, according to a 1999 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, but governments are still having trouble defining the term home care A major problem in our...

An Ounce of Prevention.
January 1, 2000... More money will help ease the pressures on our health-care system; but, money alone will not solve all the problems. The catch-phrase used by government officials these days is "What matters more is how, rather than how much." In other words,...

A Model, or a Muddle?
January 1, 2000... Right-wing lobby groups such as the Fraser Institute and the Business Council on National Issues have been nudging Canadian politicians towards accepting a U.S.-style health-care system, but one recent survey found that 96% of Canadians prefer...

Pill Wars.
January 1, 2000... Poison-pen letters. Lawsuits. Trash talking. The sort of thing you'd expect from the World Wrestling Federation, but not among senior members of Canada's medical community. But, some very messy disputes have made the front pages recently...

Ethical Dilemma.
January 1, 2000... Tyrell Dueck found himself in a terrible position in 1999. The 13-year-old from Martensville, Saskatchewan had bone cancer, the same condition that killed marathon runner Terry Fox. In the fall of 1998, doctors prescribed amputation of Tyrell's...

Defences Down.
January 1, 2000... Canada is not doing a very good job of disease-monitoring. Federal Auditor-General Denis Desautels reported in December 1999 that Health Canada has no plan for detecting and controlling health threats such as AIDS, influenza, and...

Sixth-sense Drugs.
January 1, 2000... Researchers are looking into a brand new way of treating patients. Its foundation is the so-called sixth sense that some humans seem to have. This might show up as a sudden intuition that danger lurks nearby, or it can send people knock-kneed...

Couch Potato Alert.
January 1, 2000... Canadians are so lazy they're putting their lives at risk. In 1995, 2,500 adults were questioned about their physical activities, and the results were cross-referenced with medical data. The bad news was published in 1998. "If you are...

Missing Donors.
January 1, 2000... Canada is among the worst in the Western world for organ donations. For example, in 1996, Canada's rate was 14.1 donors per million population compared to Spain's rate of 26.8 donors per million population. The number of patients waiting...

Good Health.
January 1, 2000... Life expectancy for Canadians has reached a new high. According to a study released in September 1999, a Canadian woman can expect to live 81.4 years and a Canadian man 75.1 years. Only the Japanese and Swiss live longer. The three...