Randall Denley: Shifting some surgeries to private clinics won't turn Ontario into a health care hellscape

NDP leader Marit Stiles said the bill is the “one of the greatest threats to the right to public health care that we’ve seen in our province for generations.” Stiles imagines a “two-tier” health system where private clinics will be U.S.-owned and will try to sell patients procedures not covered by OHIP or charge them fees to get to the top of a waitlist.

The coalition is vowing “the biggest fight-back this province has ever seen,” said executive director Natalie Mehra. It hopes to attract a million votes of support in a referendum it will conduct later this month. The ballot question is: “Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? Yes or No.”

The idea of privately owned clinics routinely charging fees is a fantasy. The Canada Health Act prevents fees for services that are covered by public health care. According to provincial data, complaints about clinic extra-billing amount to only $42,000 since Ford took power in 2018. New clinics must give the government a plan for how they will attract staff. People have been told that nurses left hospitals “in droves” over the last few years. There must be some who would be attracted to the regular hours and higher pay of clinics.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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