Guest blog by Ken Robertson
Past and present governments’ lack of commitment to protect our public health care system has led to Bill 60, which allows private-for-profit clinics to provide selected medical procedures and services.
While not quite as brazen as the 1995 Conservative government, whose Education Minister, Brian Snobelen said “In order to change the education system, we need to create a crisis,” the present Ford government has “created a crisis” by quietly underfunding and putting undo stress on staff in our heath care system to the point where people are finding accessibility to doctors and medical procedures more and more difficult. The past Liberal government was instrumental in undermining our health care with cuts but the Ford government has picked it up a notch with Bill 60.
The government says Bill 60 will lower wait times by allowing for-profit-private clinics to operate in Ontario. To the ears of people waiting for medical procedures, this is good news but for the overall health of our publicly funded healthcare system, it is bad news.
The grim reality is FOR-PROFIT means let’s make money and lots of it. The government says that no one will have to pay to access a Private Clinic, the government will pay. There are examples where private clinics charge 2 to 3 times higher than the public system and in some cases (although illegal under the Canada Health Act), [and there is] also extra billing as well to access the care. There is no question Bill 60 is designed to break the public health care system over time, both morally and financially.
Saskatchewan, under Tommy Douglas, introduced Public Health Care and Mr. Douglas was known as the Father of Medicare in Canada, I am afraid that Doug Ford, who introduced Private For-Profit Health Care in Ontario, will [make Ontario] known as the place where Medicare in Canada came to die.
Simcoe County Health Coalition 