1) Landmark $10 Million Gift To Bring Expanded Cancer Care To Simcoe Muskoka

ReleasePublished Courtesy of Barrie360.com: Dec 15th, 2023

News release – Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre

Catherine and David Hudson have pledged a record-setting $10 million to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre’s (RVH) Keep Life Wild campaign to support the expansion of the cancer centre.

In recognition of the family’s extraordinary generosity, the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre will be renamed the David and Catherine Hudson Regional Cancer Centre.

“The people of Simcoe Muskoka will be forever grateful to the Hudsons. This extraordinary gift is the lynchpin in our plan to revolutionize cancer care right here in our own backyard,” said RVH President and CEO Gail Hunt. “In our expanded cancer program, we will offer the very best in personalized, precise, and minimally invasive treatments delivered by highly trained specialists using the most advanced technology. This means our friends, neighbours and loved ones will be treated sooner, return home sooner, recover sooner, and get back to the life they love sooner.”

The landmark Hudson donation is the largest in the history of RVH and is the largest gift to a hospital in the history of Simcoe Muskoka. David Hudson sadly lost his sister Lara to a rare form of breast cancer at age 35. This personal loss was a motivation behind their groundbreaking gift, along with a commitment to inspiring others to support the hospital’s larger expansion efforts.

“Those who love Simcoe Muskoka, as we do, should realize that, together, we all need to ensure world-class care is in place here,” Catherine Hudson said.

Added David Hudson: “It’s about recognizing that as this region doubles in size, we need to ensure that RVH and the services it provides meet that growth. For everyone who has the ability to give, now is the time.”

“Everything about this day is extraordinary, not only the magnitude of this gift, but the impact it will have on the lives of individuals and their families across this region.,” said RVH Foundation CEO Pamela Ross. “These selfless acts of generosity have the power to inspire others to do same. Because the proof of what generosity can achieve here in our community is undeniable.”

The Foundations Keep Life Wild campaign is designed to raise $100 million to help fund the Simcoe Muskoka regional health centre’s planned expansion of the current site in Barrie, and to build a brand new facility in Innisfil. In addition to the expansion of the cancer centre, the larger redevelopment plan will ensure that RVH is able to continue to provide exceptional patient care, while also improving access for the region’s residents for generations to come. The plan will add more than 240 beds, expand critical care, surgical suites, neonatal intensive care, urgent care and much more, enabling RVH to enhance almost every service it offers.

The importance of gifts, large and small, remains. Information on RVH’s expansion plans and how to give can be found atwww.KeepLifeWild.ca

2) Don’t Call It Insurance: What Dentists Want You To Know About The Federal Dental Plan

Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Dec 12th, 2023

By Laura Osman in Ottawa

The federal government has announced enrolment details for a new federal dental plan that resembles typical insurance coverage, down to the benefits card patients show at the dentists’ office. 

But dentists say the new government program isn’t the same as the insurance people typically get from employers, and patients should be clear about the differences. 

British Columbia Dental Association president Dr. Robert Wolanski says the government plan is more of a social program than a typical insurance program.

The government’s benefits plan is modelled closely on the federal health benefits program for registered First Nations and Inuit people.

Wolanski says that program has some distinct differences from an employer insurance program in terms of the eligibility criteria and the administrative burden for oral health-care providers. 

The dentist from Nanaimo, B.C., says it’s not clear yet exactly how patients’ experiences will differ when they arrive at the dentist’s office because those details haven’t been released by the federal government yet.

3) Seniors Over 87 Can Apply To Join Federal Dental Plan Starting Next Week

Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Dec 11th, 2023

By Laura Osman in Ottawa

The federal government unveiled some details Monday of a long-awaited plan to help uninsured Canadians afford dental care — a rollout industry professionals say they’ll be watching closely for its impact on staff shortages and private coverage.

Seniors over the age of 87 will be the first cohort invited to apply to join the federally subsidized dental plan as Ottawa gradually enrols eligible participants over the course of the coming 12 months. 

The program — currently projected to cost $13 billion over the next five years — will be slowly expanded over the next year to include all qualifying seniors, children under the age of 18 and people with disabilities.

The first group of seniors to join the program won’t be able to start making claims for their dental visits until May, though the exact coverage date will vary from person to person. 

The federally funded insurance program, which was developed with the New Democrats, is aimed at people with an annual household income under $90,000 who don’t have access to private insurance. 

Families that make less than $70,000 won’t have copays on their dental services. Others will have copays that total somewhere between 40 and 60 per cent of the total cost of services, depending on their family income. 

“Far too many people have avoided getting the care that they need simply because it was too expensive, and that’s why this plan is essential,” Health Minister Mark Holland told a news conference. 

There has been “enormous additional cost” to the health system — to say nothing of a person’s own dignity — when people have to wait until their oral health is so dire that they have to get treatment at the emergency room, Holland said.

“We know we can do better.”

Details of the exact services to be covered haven’t yet been released, but they will include preventive, diagnostic, restorative and surgical services — including X-rays, fillings, root canal treatments and dentures, among others, he said. 

Nor have the governing Liberals released details of how much dental-care providers will be reimbursed for specific services, making it difficult to assess how much participants will be expected to pay out of pocket.

The government estimates as many as nine million Canadians lack private coverage. 

Once the eligibility is expanded to all qualifying Canadian residents in 2025, the plan will be the largest public benefit program in the country’s history, said Citizens Services Minister Terry Beech.

The Canadian Dental Association, which has long called for improved access to dental care for low-income and vulnerable Canadian residents, welcomed word of the rollout.

Association president Dr. Heather Carr said she believes thousands of dental clinics will have to step up to accommodate the potential influx of new patients. 

In its last federal budget, the government pledged to put $250 million toward making dental-care services more accessible over three years, starting in 2025. 

“We do have staff shortages, as in every health-care sector. So what I’m hoping is that part of the oral health care access fund will work toward addressing some of those issues,” Carr said. 

The government has largely brushed off concerns raised by dental professionals early in the planning process about the potential for employers and provinces to reduce or eliminate their plans, and instead refer people to the federal program.

“Two-thirds of Canadians have access to first-class dental care that we do not want to see disappear,” said Dr. Brock Nicolucci, president of the Ontario Dental Association. 

“If it does start disappearing, that $13 billion that’s been allocated over the five years could start ballooning.”

Holland said he’s in talks with the insurance industry, provinces and businesses about maintaining their current coverage.

“It’s so important to state that the objective here today is to fill in the gaps to make sure that people who don’t have access to care get care,” Holland said.

“We’re certainly working with industry and with insurance companies to make sure that that’s the case.”

The insurance plan is a key pillar in the Liberal’s supply-and-confidence deal with the New Democrats to secure the opposition party’s support on key votes. 

The NDP lauded the news in a statement Monday, styling the plan as “the NDP national dental care program.” 

Liberal ministers also shared the credit with NDP health critic Don Davies at Monday’s news conference, lauding his role in developing and advocating for the program.

“By working in co-operative partnership with our Liberal colleagues, New Democrats have helped secure dental care for nine million Canadians,” Davies said.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that this is the biggest expansion of public health care in Canada in many generations.”

The Conservatives did not respond for a request for comment on the program or its anticipated rollout. 

The government is expected to start mailing out letters to qualifying seniors this week to invite them to apply for the program. Once they get the letter, they will be able to connect with a government call centre to learn more and get the enrolment process started. 

“There is no proactive action that any Canadian needs to take today in order to enrol, other than making sure that you’re up to date and filing your taxes,” Beech said.

The tax filings will help the government determine if they meet the income requirements and whether people have insurance through their employers.

In May, the government plants to launch a web portal for people who wish to enrol. 

4) In Hypochondria Paradox, Swedish Study Finds A Higher Death Rate In Those Who Fear Serious Illness

Canadian PressPublished: Dec 13th, 2023

By Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press

A large Swedish study has uncovered a paradox about people diagnosed with an excessive fear of serious illness: They tend to die earlier than people who aren’t hypervigilant about health concerns.

Hypochondriasis, now called illness anxiety disorder, is a rare condition with symptoms that go beyond average health worries. People with the disorder are unable to shake their fears despite normal physical exams and lab tests. Some may change doctors repeatedly. Others may avoid medical care.

“Many of us are mild hypochondriacs. But there are also people on the other extreme of the spectrum who live in a perpetual state of worry and suffering and rumination about having a serious illness,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Alpert of Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

People with the disorder are suffering and “it’s important to take it seriously and to treat it,” said Alpert, who was not involved in the new study. Treatment can involve cognitive behavioural therapy, relaxation techniques, education and sometimes antidepressant medication.

The researchers found that people with the diagnosis have an increased risk of death from both natural and unnatural causes, particularly suicide. Chronic stress and its impact on the body could explain some of the difference, the authors wrote.

The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, addressed “a clear gap in the literature,” said David Mataix-Cols of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who led the research. “We got lucky,” he said, because the Swedish classification system for health statistics has a separate code for hypochondriasis, allowing data analysis on thousands of people over 24 years, 1997-2020.

Older research had suggested the risk of suicide might be lower for people with the condition, but “our hunch, based on clinical experience, was that this would be incorrect,” Mataix-Cols said. In the study, the risk of suicide death was four times higher for the people with the diagnosis.

They looked at 4,100 people diagnosed with hypochondriasis and matched them with 41,000 people similar in age, sex and county of residence. They used a measurement called person years, which accounts for the number of people and how long they were tracked.

Overall death rates were higher in the people with hypochondriasis, 8.5 versus 5.5 per 1,000 person years. People with the condition died younger than the others, a mean age of 70 versus 75. Their risk of death from circulatory and respiratory diseases was higher. Cancer was an exception; the risk of death was about the same.

Referring an excessively anxious patient to mental health professionals takes care, said Alpert, who leads the American Psychiatric Association’s council on research. Patients can be offended, because they feel they’re being accused of imagining symptoms.

“It takes a great deal of respect and sensitivity conveyed to patients that this itself is a kind of condition, that it has a name,” Alpert said. “And, fortunately, there are good treatments.”