The secret moves to increase private health care
Premier Doug Ford loves to boast about how his Conservative government is moving swiftly to end “hallway medicine” and adequately fund health care in Ontario.
Indeed, Ford said earlier this week in a
letter to Ontario’s 68,000 public servants that he has been “moving forward at a lightning pace” to deal with hospital overcrowding.
He also told the bureaucrats that Health Minister Christine Elliott is working hard to protect the public health-care system, adding his government “will continue to ensure necessary funding for world-class health care in Ontario.”
Secretly, though, a major multi-faceted campaign is underway inside and outside the premier’s office to develop a two-tier system of health care in Ontario, complete with specialized private clinics and the ability of some doctors to charge more than standard rates for medical procedures they perform outside of a public hospital or health centre.
The campaign is filled with closed-door meetings at such places as the Albany Club, a long-time Conservative bastion in downtown Toronto, and is funded by some of Canada’s largest corporations.
If successful, this privatization push could ultimately have a profound impact on every patient and resident in Ontario, including how long they must wait for specialized operations and diagnostic services and how much they must pay out of their own pockets.
Evidence of this campaign is clearly mounting:
No comments:
Post a Comment