Halton sends health care message to Doug Ford

The public health care system currently has capacity to handle the backlog of diagnostics and surgeries, it simply needs an injection of cash from the provincial government.

Hailey has heard many stories from friends and family members using Ontario’s health care system. And, most are not good. The 18-year-old journalism major shared, “It’s a very, very slow, very, very difficult process that will not be made better by privatizing health care. Privatization will just make the problems more obvious than they already are.”

Hailey joined Halton Health Coalition (HHC) because, “I saw the government of Ontario deciding that instead of fixing health care, they were going to privatize it to make it less accessible to the bulk of the population and let the existing system flounder more than it already is.”

Underfunding and understaffing the public system to create a crisis that is then ‘fixed’ by privatizing health care has historically worsened outcomes – both physically and financially.

Funding more private clinics and public-private partnerships (P3s) will only exacerbate wait times by pulling essential funding and staff away from the public system.

Trying to attract out-of-province nurses while increasing nursing school enrollment is a recipe for disaster. Bill 124 capped public sector nursing wage increases at 1 per cent providing little incentive for nurses to move here and no financial advantage to remaining in Ontario once students complete their training.

Despite a court ruling that Bill 124 is unconstitutional, Doug Ford is appealing the decision.

The public health care system currently has capacity to handle the backlog of diagnostics and surgeries, it simply needs an injection of cash from the provincial government.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada ranks 22^nd out of 34 OECD countries when it comes to financing health services.

About 70 per cent of Canada’s health care is covered by the government well below Norway 86 per cent; Sweden and Germany 85 per cent; and Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands 83 per cent.

The Ontario government could innovate the public health care system simply by implementing the Scottish Public Health Care System that is entirely publicly funded and has zero room for privatization.

Don’t confuse Scottish health care with the disastrously corrupt, inefficient and virtually bankrupt private, for-profit English system.

A world leader in providing high-quality care and efficiency, Scotland’s national health system could be replicated in Ontario by maintaining a focus on public infrastructure and rejecting all forms of privatization.

“Privatization is going to make it harder for disadvantaged people to get the health care they deserve because there is that financial barrier,” Hailey said.

“If they feel like they will have to pay just to be examined, then they’re not going to go until they’ve hit the point where they should have gone much earlier.”

The Conservative government is redirecting public funds to private, for-profit health care at a time when overall public funding for universal health care in Ontario is the lowest in Canada.

Hailey says her cohorts see for-profit health care adding one more unnecessary financial burden to a growing list including inflation, housing costs and student debt.

That’s what motivated Hailey to help with the health coalition’s citizen-run referendum on the Ontario government’s plan to privatize core hospital services.

The plan is for 1 million Ontarians to let Doug Ford know that they want properly funded and strengthen hospital services.

Halton residents will be able to vote online and at in-person polling stations throughout May.

“I’m extremely interested in politics and helping people be heard by governments and politicians in the systems that are often seeming like they’re actively trying to cause harm to people when their purpose is to help,” stated Hailey.

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This article first appeared in The Hamilton Spectator.