Ontario Health Care welcomes Ford back to Queen's Park -- please join them

OHC is calling for Ontarians to show up en masse on the opening day of the Ontario Legislature -- Monday, September 25 at noon – to make some good trouble in order to save universal health care.

Photo credit: Ontario Health Coalition

The Ford government is moving ahead with privatizing Ontarian’s universal public health care system.

Ford is issuing contracts for core services at public hospitals; closing essential hospital services like emergency departments and urgent care centres; privatizing primary care clinics; allowing online doctors to charge patients to access services; and giving 30-year long-term care contracts to private corporations including some of the most egregious violators of human rights like Orchard Villa in Pickering, Ontario.

Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) members and their allies want to let the Ford government know that Ontario’s publicly funded, universal health care system is not for sale.

OHC is calling for Ontarians to show up en masse on the opening day of the Ontario Legislature -- Monday, September 25 at noon – to make some good trouble in order to save universal health care.

The Ford government has cut spending to the public health care budget by billions of dollars since taking office in 2018.

The most recent figures show underspending on public health care totalled $1.25 billion — Ontario has the lowest health care funding in Canada.

At the same time, the Ford government transferred massive amounts of public money to private for-profit clinics and hospitals.

The privatization of core public hospital services will not expand the system or add more openings for consultations, treatments, or surgeries.

Privatization of the hospital system means a loss of these publicly funded surgeries along with the staff and funding that goes with them effectively gutting the health care system that Ontarians have spent decades building.

Bill 60 allows for-profit clinics to up-sell an array of medically unnecessary add-ons to needed surgeries and diagnostics – often as an ‘incentive’ to get these surgeries faster.

The Canada Health Act bans user fees and extra charges to access physicians, surgeries, and diagnostic tests but the Ford government is making a political choice to ignore that federal legislation.

The privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals means we lose our public hospital system and with it, single-tier public Medicare.

The privatization of Ontario’s universal health care system will create a great divide between those who can access health care and those who cannot.

There will come a day in the not-too-distant future when private hospitals and clinics will have a front entrance leading to an opulent waiting room exclusively for those who can pay out-of-pocket. Those using their OHIP card to pay will be directed to a rear entrance with a less impressive waiting room and downgraded services.  

We know the public system can handle the backlogs if only it was given the proper funding. There are viable alternatives to privatization that have been proven to work and are easily replicated – just look at the Scottish national health system that is completely public and a world leader.

In May, the OHC held a citizen referendum on one question, should hospital services be privatized, yes or no.

Over 400,000 Ontarians voted and an overwhelming 98 per cent opposed the privatization of Ontario’s public hospital services.  

At the time, Natalie Mehra, executive director of the OHC stated, “one in 29 Ontarians over the age of 16 voted in this referendum. Every Ontarian knows someone who voted in this. If they [the Ford government] try to ignore this, we will ratchet it up. We will not stop until they stop.”

Well, Ontario are you ready to answer the call and ratchet it up to save universal health care that is the cornerstone of Canada — and needs to be expanded to include pharmacare, dental care, eye care, and elder care rather than long-term care.

Listen to my interview with Frank Domenic about the state of Ontario’s health care system after the referendum overwhelming proved that Ontarian’s don’t want Ford or his government to privatize universal health care: https://rabble.ca/podcast/voters-oppose-increasing-private-sector-presence-ontario/

Frank Domenic is an economics teacher in Ontario who creates content on social media focusing on news and politics, ranging from global issues to niche local Ontario content. You can follow him on Twitter @TheFrankDomenic and on TikTok @frankdomenic.

I also encourage you to listen to my interview with NDP MPP Sarah Jama — made before Jama was elected in 2022. Jama has a unique and refreshing take on both elder care and disability justice that fits nicely into the scope of universal health care, a caring society, and human rights.

If you are a Baby Boomer you will want to hear what Jama has to say about the decarceration of long-term care. Have a listen here: https://rabble.ca/podcast/disability-justice-is-the-antithesis-of-capitalism/

For more information about the peaceful protest at Queen’s Park, including busing and alternative locations for those who live outside the GTHA, click here.

Let’s get as many people out to this event as possible!