According to the World Health Organization: “The right to health for all people means that everyone should have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without suffering financial hardship. No one should get sick and die just because they are poor, or because they cannot access the health services they need.”
Some readers may not remember what it was like to live in Canada before Scottish-Canadian NDP leader Tommy Douglas saw his dream of universal healthcare become a reality; but things were not great, to say the least.
Life before universal healthcare
I know of one family whose young child had asthma. After the doctor performed a tracheotomy on the kitchen table, the child was hospitalized.
That family had nine more kids and didn’t have money to cover hospital bills. That’s when a sister-in-law who was a nurse stepped up to work extra shifts to pay off the debt.
Don’t believe me? Well, that’s alright because the Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens’ Organizations collected the lived experiences of folks from across Canada and bound them into a book called, Life Before Medicare: Canadian Experiences.
This book lays bare just how bad it was in the ‘good old days’ when we had to pay for health. Folks went without treatments and often died simply because they didn’t have the money for doctor, medical and prescription bills.
One experience described in Life Before Medicare that may haunt you, as it does me, is a woman retelling what life was like living on a Saskatchewan farm after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Because the mother knew that cancer treatment and pain medication would bankrupt her family, she went without. Even out in the fields of their farm, the children could still hear their mother’s screams of pain. No one should have to endure such agony and trauma.
But that picture is essentially what Doug Ford and his Conservative party are painting in Ontario today.
‘Profits over Patients: The True Cost of Privatization’
Today, Ford is forcing Ontarians back to the ‘good old days’ where those with money get access to doctors, hospitals, treatments and medications while those without money are denied those essential services.
Well, I’m not going back there, and I’m not going down without a fight!
So, I invite everyone to join me Sunday, September 8 at 2 pm. at the Westdale Theatre for a town hall hosted by Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas NDP MPP Sandy Shaw, an event centered around the impact of privatization on patient care.
The event will screen two short-documentaries: Meeting Human Needs: The fight to protect Saskatchewan’s Public Services (19 mins.) and The Myth of Canadian Health Care|Hippocrates: a Guide to Treating healthcare Workers (36 mins.). These will be followed by discussions exploring what happens when profit drives decisions and what can be done to protect universal healthcare.
The event will also feature pre-recorded interviews with Canadian Doctors for Medicare, Dr Melanie Bechard, Dr. Bernard Ho and Dr. Danyaal Raza; and a panel discussion with Kieran Fong, documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Alberta and CUPE Ontario’s regional vice-president, Michael Hurley.
Fong will focus on provincial priorities including an update on what’s happening in Alberta and the role provincial governments play in exacerbating the healthcare crisis. Hurley will tackle the effects of healthcare cuts and privatization on workers, patients and taxpayers as well as the steps needed to fight back.
Those who attend are encouraged to submit questions to the organizers so they can be answered by Fong, Hurley and MPP Shaw.
To register for this event, click this image or see details below.
The sense of entitlement runs deep in Conservative governments and amongst many folks who can afford private healthcare.
Well, I want to remind those folks that while you may be able to afford private healthcare today, your kids and grandkids may not.
Provincial governments should be ensuring the social determinants of health like housing, education, food and comprehensive universal healthcare form the basis of a strengths-based approach focused on wellness, resilience and prevention.
I’m up for the fight! Are you?
To register for this event on Sunday, September 8 from 2-4:30pm, visit this link. Hosted at The Westdale Theater 1014 King St W, Hamilton.
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