Int J Health Serv
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Review
Health as an irreversible part of the welfare state: Canadian government policy under the Tories.
This article provides an assessment of the health policy of the Canadian Conservative government under Brian Mulroney, 1984-1993. Underlying this assessment is the need to test the theory of the irreversibility of the welfare state in the light of its health component. The author argues that despite a political rhetoric that might have presaged a sharp rollback of Canada's Medicare, either through residualization or progressive commodification, Canada emerged from this period of New Right federal government with its state-funded health care system still in place. This argument is substantiated through a consideration of the social policy model inherited by the Mulroney government and how it was affected by the government's fiscal policies between 1984 and 1993.
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The last decade has been marked by a rapid growth in the women's health movement around the world. There has been a marked shift in activities away from the developed countries, as campaigns increase in intensity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. ⋯ Both the goals of these campaigns and their methods vary with the circumstances of the women involved. But despite this diversity, common themes can be identified: reproductive self-determination; affordable, effective, and humane medical care; satisfaction of basic needs; a safe workplace; and freedom from violence.
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In this report the Labour Party give its view of the current status of the British National Health Service (NHS), and outlines its plans for the NHS under a Labour government. The values underlying the NHS - comprehensive health care, free at the point of use, based on need rather than ability to pay - have been betrayed. The truly national health service, created by a Labour government in 1948, has been replaced by a market-based service led by accountants. ⋯ Under the Tories, the NHS faces a future of privatization, competition, and markets, money wasted on bureaucracy, and the unfairness of a two-tier system. Under Labour, the NHS faces modernization, planned progress, money spent on frontline services, and excellence for all. Labour will follow a model of health care that is patient centered and community led, a properly coordinated and efficient public service.