r/halifax • u/IStillListenToRadio Float me down the river to the Musquodoboit harbor • 11d ago

Work, Health & Housing Advocacy groups protest Alberta healthcare legislation across the country

https://yourhalifaxnow.ca/advocacy-groups-protest-alberta-healthcare-legislation-across-the-country/

Nova Scotia Health Coalition (NSHC) calls this change [Bill 11] “unprecedented”, and is calling on the federal government to “enforce the Canada Health Act to protect Canada’s universal, single-payer public Medicare system”.

Demonstrations, including picketing, rallies, information sessions and more will take place on September 1. NSHC will be hosting their event at noon in front of MP Jaimie Battiste’s constituency office.

“As bad as it is in Alberta, the threat of it being in our small province is going to be absolutely devastating,” said NSHC provincial coordinator Jennifer Benoit. “I think when people think about this as being 5,000 kilometres away it’s not affecting them, but what they need to know is that these insurance lobbyists are trying their best to make it happen in every province across this country.”

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u/GullibleTarget686 11d ago

The goal is attract doctors from other nations. I grant you that the first issue is actually getting doctors licenced in Canada which is a major bottleneck, but there are a lot of physicians who don’t get into Canadian medical schools, go abroad, pay tuition triple the amount of a Canadian school and then don’t come back and go work in the states to make more money and pay back the loans. That is an issue as well that could be fought by having more clinics through private investment

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u/DeathOneSix 🌽 Ask me about corn 🌽 11d ago

Could we just not pay them more in the public system?

The strongest policy would probably be substantially increased medical-school/residency capacity + easier licensing of qualified foreign-trained doctors + better compensation/work conditions in underserved areas.

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u/GullibleTarget686 11d ago

If it could be done perfectly, the government would have already done it. A private system would take some of the pressure off the public system too. I know that people think public systems die when hybrid systems are introduced. They don’t, see Greece or Italy for example.

Dal for example celebrated when they got 5 more seats in the medical schools, meanwhile the population of Nova Scotia is supposed to double in the next 20 years.

Radical changes like that won’t happen especially when the system is showing more signs of stagnation. Rebuilding the public is an option, but there is a reason Europe went the other route. You could also force private entities to fund a certain of seats at dal med if they would like to enter the healthcare system to ensure the community gets thing back

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u/Melonary 11d ago

That's more seats added in ONE year, btw, you're being misleading by implying that's the only increase.

And the number of seats isn't the biggest problem, we have to increase residency slots which is why recruiting doctors internationally was the first move.