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secrecy on the grounds that a competitive environment protects corpo-
rate rights to trade secrecy, including over exactly how profits are made.
All these forms are evident in nursing homes, residential facili-
ties that receive considerable public funding to provide 24-hour nurs-
ing care.
Nursing Home Privatization
Labelled by several different names, what are most commonly called
nursing homes are primarily a provincial/territorial responsibility.
They are not explicitly named under the Canada Health Act, the legis-
lation that establishes principles for federal funding. As a result, there
is considerable variation among jurisdictions in relation to funding,
regulation, and policy.
Nevertheless, as McDonald4 explains, there are five common
funding patterns across jurisdictions:
• health care costs are publicly covered;
• residents bear some responsibility for accommodation costs;
• public subsidies of accommodation costs are targeted based
on residents’ ability to pay;
• residents’ payments should not take all of their income;
• residents’ payments should take into account the needs of
other family members.
Another commonality has been the closure of chronic care
and psychiatric hospitals, a narrowing of the definition of acute
care, and the dramatic shortening of hospital stays in the name of
health care reform. Policy increasingly emphasizes aging in place,
which primarily means looking after yourself (i.e., responsibiliza-
tion) or having—usually female—relatives look after you, with
some support from government-funded home care. Homecare pro-
vides some services previously available in hospitals and nursing
homes, but many do not have private homes, or homes organized
in a way that can safely accommodate their needs, or relatives with
the time, skill, or other capacities to provide the required care. The
complexity of the care and equipment required means that much
4. Martha MacDonald, “Regulating Individual Charges for Long-Term Residential
Care In Canada” (2015) 95:1 Studies in Political Economy 83 at 89.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International