Health Care Funding, Priority Setting and Allocation of Scarce Resources – choose from below for your discussion:
The following are some questions to consider and to guide discussions during WEEK 6:
Decisions in regards to finance in health care begins at the top with money coming from the federal government. Each province is then allotted a specific amount of money. This provincial money then becomes parceled off to hospitals, nursing homes, and community care. Once this money is portioned out, managers then decide where, when, and how health dollars are to be spent. This is very much a top-down approach.
Funding decisions should really come from the ground level and make their way to government to truly know where the needs of our country, provinces, and communities lie.
I work in the education system tending to the medical and educational needs of special needs students. It is really hard to see some days just how poorly cate for kids with special needs is funded, and the detrimental effects ot has on a daily basis as well as over time. Currently schools only receive funding to hire enough workers for children diagnosed with very low functioning autism or indigenous children with low-functioning autism. This greatly benefits students who have access to this care, but allows too many kids to fall through the cracks. I want to advocate to broaden the standards of which children receive help and help to ensure fairness and equality. Myself and another colleague who is an R.N. push for better and more equitable care of all identified students.