Legal Framework of Health Care System in Canada

Fundamental issues

Division of Powers.

Impacts how health system is structured. Recent decision in QB CA summarizes federal and provincial responsibilities regarding health care. At issue is whether assisted human reproduction should be federally or provincially regulated. The federal government has traditionally placed this matter under the criminal law head of power. If defeated, they may try to classify it under POGG power. However, that would be a difficult argument as POGG is not used very often, and it would be difficult to argue that this is a matter of national concern.

Federal heads of power: criminal law. POGG, spending power (i.e. collection and distribution of taxes), quarantine and border control, patent, defence, penitentiaries, immigration. As we can see, the federal role is indirect, supervisory.

Provincial heads of power: hospitals (92.7); medical profession and the practice of medicine (92.13 – property and civil rights; 92.16 – matters of a local and private nature); education (s93) – includes professional regulation.

At issue here, reproduction is held to be under provincial regulation. Human reproduction is not an ‘evil’, hence cannot be regulated by federal criminal law power. On the other hand, true prohibitions, such as stem cell research can rightly be under the federal criminal head of power.

Canada Health Act. Central piece of federal legislation for health care. Canada Health Act does not prohibit anything explicitly, but rather relies on conditional funding. If programs meet criteria then they are funded. If programs do not meet the criteria then they are not funded.   The act lists five program criteria and conditions that provinces must follow in order to receieve their federal transfer payments: public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. There are two additional conditions which must be met: first, feds are entitled to specific information ; and second, the province must “give recognition” to the federal government in all health documents.

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More Info and Details on the Development of Security Agreements

An oral security agreement is valid. But that agreement is only enforceable as between the parties. If you want to have priority rights against third parties then there has to be a security agreement in writing.

“Enforceability” against third parties:
A security interest is enforceable against a third party only where… a description of the collateral by item or kind or by reference to one or more of the following: “crops”, “goods”, “chattel paper”, etc. etc.”

“by kind” – i.e. a generic description of the item. So you can refer to the item as “a car” rather than “a black on black 2008 BMW M3 with six speed manual transmission” or whatever. That being said, while this generic description may satisfy s10, in real life it may not be specific enough for the world of evidence or contracts if things ever went to litigation.

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The difference between a treaty and declaration.

A treaty has signed participants who pass legislation pursuant to it. A declaration is just the UN declaring something. You can determine which one equates to quicker application.

There is a Doctrine of state continuity which means if a state signs a treaty, even if there is a major change of government, the state is still bound by its prior treaty obligations.

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Pictures of Your Slip & Fall

What’s perhaps the greatest asset when seeking adequate compensation for a slip or fall injury? Quite simply it’s pictures. A picture in this case would be worth a 1000 words. Pictures from multiple angles, with measurement tools or comparison objects, close ups, even a landscape shot, there’s no shortage of how many pictures you can take of a scene.

Help yourself build a case by ensuring your ‘evidence’ is substantial. Continue reading “Pictures of Your Slip & Fall”

Pleading in Civil Action in Canada

Pleadings function to include written statements of the parties to an action, served by each party in turn on the
other, and filed in court, which set forth in a summary form the material facts on which each party relies in support of the claim or defence, as the case may be.

By the time the pleadings are closed, there will be a precise definition of the issues between the parties.

There are 3 fundamental principles of pleading:
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Commencement of Civil Action in Canada

Generally one has to go through a checklist of issue identification to verify that your legal problem is something capable of starting in Queen’s Bench. that checklist would inclue:

Conditions Precedent (will depend on who you are suing)

Limitations on Right of Action

Suspension of Right of Action

Extinction of Right of Action

All whilst considering: Choice of Venue & Change of Venue

Service of Process – SERVING A DOCUMENT MEANS GIVING IT TO THE OTHER PARTY INFORMING THEM THAT YOU ARE GOING TO SUE THEM.

Poor and Nice – Doctors Who’re Never Sued Twice

Or even once. One of the huge downfalls of the privatized healthcare system in the USA is how a litigious society impacts healthcare. Doctors themselves, and nurses, have to take out insurance policies to protect themselves from impending lawsuits (that in the course of a career can happen multiple times due to legitimate reasons like gross negligence to frivolous lawsuits). THe former of course will face more lawsuits in his or her career.

Rising legal costs and the cost of insurance push up healthcare costs, then those rising costs are passed on to the patient or the state (thus the patient thru taxes).

Is there anyway to reduce the number of lawsuits if you’re a doctor? Turns out there is.
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Dime a Dozen for Attorneys – Do Your Research

There’s an old saying that attorneys are a, “dime a dozen”. With the advent of social media the tools to select the right attorney for the right job, and compare all at the same time, is at your fingertips.

That means the following concern should happen less in our digital age.

My attorney for 2 years has done nothing that I understand. I drive 80 miles one way for a meeting and we discuss options/strategies then I leave (after she charges 400.00) and she does not follow thru. Continue reading “Dime a Dozen for Attorneys – Do Your Research”