Gaps in Canadian Healthcare funding
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The Canada Health Act (CHA) is "Canada's federal legislation for publicly funded health care insurance" (Government of Canada, 2020).
Gaps in government medical coverage leading to increase deaths states authors of the Dalhousie Law Journal (2016).
(Image from: Google Images)
"The Canada Health Act (CHA), adopted in 1984, limits coverage to medically necessary hospital and physician services" (CHA, 2020). For example the Dalhousie Law Journal (2016) states that "physical procedures such as bunion removal are covered as medically necessary, however, diabetics will die due to a lack of drug coverage" (DaSilva, M. et al, 2016). This is where re-evaluation of the coverage or certain procedures needs to be address and level of acuity taken into consideration.
It is known that poorly controlled diabetes can lead to many comorbidities, however, those who do not have coverage, or are low come, will not be able to afford proper medication to prevent further health decline. For some of the population that is low income they may need to choose between putting food on the table or their medication, which is not acceptable. In my opinion we need to do better. A patient with type II diabetes may be told to eat healthier and exercise, however, if they can barely afford their medication this does not leave much money left over each month to buy fresh produce and meat. This is a vicious cycle which can ultimately result in weight gain, cardiac issues, and out of control diabetes.
Personally I deal with a lot of low income patients in central Alberta who are prescribed the new and up comping Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) medication, however the newer medications are more costly, putting a burden on the patient. The patient is left with the options; do I want to breath? or do I want to afford healthy food? This is often seen, despite their current, more affordable medication doing an adequate job. In these cases I advise the patient if they do not see an improvement in a month to schedule an appointment with their family doctor and explain the situation. No one should have to choose between keeping the heat on, putting food on the table, and life sustaining medication
References:
Government of Canada (2020, February 24). Canada Health Act.
DaSilva, M., Downie, J., Flood, C.M., Giroux, M., Gostin, L.O., Oguamanam, C., Thomas, B.,
von Tigerstrom, B. (2016). Dalhousie Law Journal: Health Law. https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=218125068102115118122081029088109010103082061020005063086101090127013127113101119078123118100120050104112113065086126017006105020059005039077090127107102112074073049014011079115116091015003068023081115067096026077113002099091093017087101105005021098&EXT=pdf
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