CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Supplementary health care insurance is the fastest growing segment of the insurance industry in Canada, but not because of a rise in the number of policy holders. Instead, revenue increase is primarily due to price increases for insured services, such as prescription drugs or semi-private hospital coverage, and the expansion of private coverage into areas vacated by public health insurance. The role of private insurance in the evolving Canadian health care system was debated during a recent conference sponsored by the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University.
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The CMA's General Council has decided to withhold its stamp of approval for a "private parallel" health care system by voting against a motion to remove legislative barriers to private insurance. However, General Council did call on the CMA to take the issue directly to Canadians and conduct a national debate. General Council did pass a "Blueprint for Action"--16 resolutions spelling out the CMA's views on ways to protect Canada's medicare system.
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Although it was well advertised, few Canadian physicians attended a recent conference on Lyme disease in Vancouver. The apparent lack of interest upsets the president of the Lyme Borreliosis Society, who says many patients have been misdiagnosed, mistreated or untreated and "are now chronically disabled." Interestingly, the disease seems to be much more common in the US than Canada. In New York State, for instance, more than 26,000 cases have been diagnosed, but in nearby Ontario the total is only 200.
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Biography Historical Article
Past presidents join forces to refurbish gravesite of Sir Charles Tupper, first CMA president.
The CMA's past presidents have donated a plaque and refurbished the headstone and plot at the Halifax gravesite of Sir Charles Tupper, the association's first president. "Sir Charles Tupper was a very significant personality in the conception of a national medical association and the past presidents wanted that fact to be remembered," Dr. Athol Roberts says of the endeavour.
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Biography Historical Article
Forensic dentistry joins DNA analysis as important tool for police work.
A Vancouver dentist who works as a teacher, researcher and administrator at the University of British Columbia has a unique extracurricular interest. Dr. David Sweet, one of four forensic odontologists in Canada, has put names to unidentified bodies and the remains of car-crash victims, helped convict child abusers and provided evidence in robbery cases.