HEALTH WEEK
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 21
Service cuts
Whole-brain
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of the SCC found no justification for the government
prohibition against individuals obtaining private
health insurance. This should not, however, be
confused with “privatization.” There are several
combinations of public/private healthcare funding
and not all of them necessarily imply the government
getting out of its positive obligation to provide
healthcare, if you believe such obligation exists.
Beyond the ideological biases that obscure an honest
debate, the experience from other countries shows
there are alternatives which can help us finance our
healthcare by including the private sector, without
replacing the existing system.
Doctor Shortages are Real.
A recent private study by the OMA has estimated
the income of Ontario physicians will go down by
approximately thirty percent by 2017. The estimate
considers the current cuts to physician fees, growth
in overhead costs, and inflation. The worse part of
the problem is that government has the power to act
unilaterally and, as independent contractors, doctors
can either accept the terms of the relationship or leave
the province.
There are many reasons, other than greed, why
some people chose to practice medicine or invest in
healthcare as a business. Is there a valid reason why we
should require them to be any different than any other
private endeavours that make our daily lives better
with access to various levels of technology, housing,
food, and clothing? On average, doctors enter the
workforce ten years later than other professionals and
with enormous amounts of debt. Doctor shortages are
real and, as with the “clawback” changes in Ontario,
they are not always beneficial to the remaining
practitioners in the system.
Ontario has already seen a massive exodus of
doctors in the 90s. Many doctors may chose to leave to
the US, where it is estimated there will be a shortage
of 90,000 physicians over the next decade and a
potential doctor shortage, combined with restrictions
for new physicians entering the system, may already
be causing the value of established family practices to
increase. These are not good indicators and we should
not wait until it is too late to start considering our
options seriously. ◆
themselves. However, the system’s thinking that
produces holistic solutions, rather than negative
externalities, is a product of a mind in which the
left and right brain faculties are balanced, in which
awareness, imagination, and compassion are as
accessible as rational thought, professional protocol,
and self interest. This interplay between mental
faculties is perhaps the most underdeveloped skill
in law schools. And yet, it is just such an interplay
that uplifts lawyering to its boldest articulation—the
power to heal, empower, and enrich the communities
we serve.
Here’s another problem
Today, one in five Canadians will be diagnosed with
a mental health condition — m aking mental illness
the leading cause of workplace disability across
the country. Law students are four times as likely
as citizens in the general population to suffer from
mental illness. In fact, the suicide rate for lawyers
is six times the national a