Ford Conservatives Must End Push for Private Healthcare
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2023
QUEEN’S PARK – As Ontarians encounter unacceptable emergency room wait times, and difficulties accessing critical services like ambulances, primary care, and surgeries, Doug Ford has chosen to send an open invitation for corporations to profit off of our publicly funded healthcare system.
Instead of making the proper investments to fix Ontario’s healthcare, the Conservatives are spending more time attacking frontline workers and their right to bargain while pushing them out of the public system.
“The Premier has told Ontarians that they’ll never have to use their credit card to access healthcare services – that’s not true,” said MPP John Fraser, Interim Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. "We know that families are having to use their credit cards to access basic primary care services, and that’s wrong. Ontarians deserve a publicly funded healthcare system where the only shareholders that count are the people they are caring for.”
Just yesterday, Doug Ford said Ontarians do not care if they receive help from a public or private clinic. He’s wrong. Your ability to access healthcare should not depend on how wealthy you are.
“This is a government of contradictions,” said Dr. Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Health critic. “The Minister of Health told Ontarians they would always pay with their OHIP card, and never with their credit card, and yet we are seeing countless examples of privatized healthcare like pay-for-access virtual walk-in clinics in Ontario.”
Instead of relying on a faulty for-profit model that puts stock values first, the Conservative government must:
- Halt all efforts to appeal the court decision that struck down Bill 124
- Stop profiteering in healthcare and support not-for-profit independent health facilities
- Regulate temporary for-profit nursing agencies
“This government has denied they have a privatization agenda, but under their watch, they have undermined and weakened our public institutions while allowing private companies to gouge Ontarians desperate for care,” continued MPP Shamji. “Doug Ford must commit to protecting our publicly funded healthcare system, so everyone is treated fairly and can get the care they need, when they need it.”
Carter Brownlee