Maybe they keep track of statistics? This was a remarkably weak and reasonable federal condition, and yet it was still too much for most of the provincial premiers who had decided to be difficult in advance of negotiations.
Not pit behaviour but with all due respect if you think the NDP’s plan was just to throw money at it like the two other major parties who cut their “needed” funding down , then you clearly haven’t spent even a second researching them. Once again as a former con I can smell my own I think here… that is literally the textbook response I hear from con MP’s etc “you can’t just throw money at it” no one said that… no one. Ever. The NDP has a clear plan they’ve worked on for decades , feel free to look. I highly encourage it , they stole me away , they’ll steal anyone else who is good at math too… and thinks beyond “1st quarter returns”. Sorry that you fall for the fallacy that “every single year” it goes up … duhhh inflation and they always pretend its them adding money not their legal requirement to add in from previous commitments. I’m not that naive or ignorant. Sorry I don’t fall for that kind of thing. I dont think for one second even the con’s plan is “throw more money at it”… can’t believe you tried that… yikes.
Well, I’m neither, but sorry, I don’t buy their “plans.” And yes, I’ve looked at them (and no, it has not been a plan worked on for decades.)
The statement that federal health transfers went up every year is absolute fact EVEN AFTER INFLATION. (We’ll see about 2022, though; the massive inflation we’re seeing is not something we’ve seen in a very long time.) We have had this argument on this message board before, man. The federal government has abided by funding formulas that literally guarantee transfers exceed inflation since Paul Martin was the Prime Minister. The feds haven’t cut health transfers since the 90s. Look it up.
As to what provinces spend, they usually raise it too. Last fiscal year, Ontario spent $75.2 billion on health care. The fiscal year before, it was $69.8 billion, so the increase that year was about six percent, far more than inflation. The year before it was $63.5 billion. The year before it was $62 billion.
Granted, this is just Ontario (which arguably underspends, relative to other provinces) but the overall trend for Canada is the same. Let’s go back twenty years; in 2002, Canada spent eight percent of its GDP on health care. Today that number is over ten percent - which, remember, has jack shit to do with inflation.
Look, I’m all for spending more money on health care if that’s the right move, but that is not a plan. If I said I wanted to spend 25% more on a car, but I had zero idea what I was going to spend it on - no idea what kind of car I wanted, what I wanted out of a car, where I would go looking for a car, what purpose the car was supposed to fulfill - you would rightly think I was a dimwit. That’s not a plan (and by the way, I never used the phrase “throw more money at it” so please do not imply I did by using quotation marks, that’s dishonest) that’s a budget you come up with after a plan.
Hey, I’m not saying this is easy, and the experience in 2020-2022 illustrates a big problem with it; you can predict some needs but not others. The pandemic did damage to the health care system that will take years to undo.
My apologies for your long wasted diatribe that was my fault, what I mean by the fallacy of every single year it goes up. Is just that, that is a foregone conclusion and has literally no effect or basis , it will NEVER get cheaper. Ever . No matter how efficient and awesome we make it. Ever expanding populations etc. Until we reach say “star trek” level which I would say despite the nifty gadgets we have is still a long way off. What I mean is NO ONE has ever said that , that is the plan other than the MP’s for the PC"s and a few liberals even… when the NDP is mentioned.(same with the throw money at it which I don’t think anyone has ever suggested ever, it’s just used as an attacking talking point to shut down discussion in chambers and during press conferences and glad handing photo ops).
As to you have looked at it and its not been developed for decades I find that highly problematic as its eerily similar in all regards to Jack Layton’s plans for healthcare from the 90’s on… Not sure how you measure time but I do it like the rest of us. I’d even concede the con plans in general have been in the works for years although its always a push towards 50% privatization…(which I will never support).
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. My apologies for the accusation but they were quite literally the textbook talking points I’ve been hearing from when they were “my” party up until yesterday afternoon still…
Returning from healthcare politics in Canada, to the subject of the OP, the current FluTracker (reflecting the week that ended 12/3) does show that the flattening I’ve experienced locally on the ground is happening broadly across the United States. That combined with RSV apparently having mostly run out of susceptibiles to infect may have us dodging this bullet this time at least.
No question that Flu will jump up further. No idea why the flattening after Thanksgiving instead of a jump. No idea of what the pattern will be going forward. A short pause then continued rise from here? A sizable drop and then another big hump? Dunno. But neither is likely to completely break pediatric in patient capacity by itself.
Whew.
Being home from school?
Actually, I came back to this thread to post an new vaccine for RSV is on the horizon, starting with old people, but that’s not much of a surprise.
Paving the way for the world’s first RSV vaccine, FDA advisers recommend shot from Pfizer (msn.com)
That’s great news! I knew several were being developed, but it sounds like two are imminent. I hope the Guillain-Barré risk doesn’t prove too serious.
FWIW, flu vaccinations are a LOT more hit or miss than the COVID ones; they often don’t manage to target the dominant strains at all, or only manage to be close enough to the dominant strain to diminish the disease effects/duration, without actually preventing it.
I think the last 3 times I’ve had the flu, I’ve been vaccinated in the six months leading up to it.
But you’re right- the downside/cost is negligible - a poke in the arm, maybe a headache later that evening, and that’s it. Why NOT get it, even if it’s not as effective as we’d like?
The significance of that is often under appreciated. In mismatch years we often have many influenza cases in vaccinated children, but deaths and ICU stays occur almost exclusively in unvaccinated children.
I wasn’t aware of that, but that is a good reason to get vaccinated. My experience has been more along the lines of having the flu for a shorter period and/or less dramatic symptoms relative to when I’ve either not been vaccinated, or caught a strain I wasn’t vaccinated against.
The worst side effect I’ve ever had from a flu shot is a slightly sore arm, and the most persuasive result was the first time i got it, when my entire household (and my parents and sister’s household) caught flu and i didn’t.
FDA approves RSV vaccine in pregnancy to protect infants
They’ve also approved an antibody shot to protect infants.