Mark Friday, May 26 and Saturday, May 27 on your calendars. Then, circle these dates, highlight them and put a star next to them. May 26 and 27, Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) will be holding a citizens’ referendum with more than a thousand voting stations across Ontario. Online voting with be available starting May 2 – and I encourage everyone reading this to vote online as soon as the site is activated.
The referendum is in response to the Ford government’s announcement that it’s moving ahead with Bill 60, Your Health Care Act, which is expected to pass this week.
The legislation significantly expands privatization of surgeries and diagnostics as well as private for-profit hospitals and clinics – something the Ford government said they would never do during the lead-up to the election.
Once this legislation is passed the government will move with lightening speed to dismantle universal health care. It has already called for bids on three new private day hospitals to perform 14,000 cataract surgeries as well as diagnostics.
The Ford government is expanding the number of private clinics and intends to increase the volume and types of surgeries that will be privatized – knee and hip surgeries are slated for privatization by 2024.
While money for privatization flows freely, the Ontario government has underspent the public health care budget by billions of dollars annually.
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 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 go with them effectively gutting the health care system that Ontarians 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.
On May 26 and 27 Ontarians will be asked to vote on one ballot question – Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? YES or NO.
All Ontario residents 16 years or older can vote. You will be asked to pledge to only vote once providing your address to help ensure the integrity of the vote.
May 2 online voting begins and a list of in-person voting stations for each community will be released.
May 30 the results of the referendum will be announced.
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.
We will see the day when private hospitals and clinics will have one entrance and waiting room for those who can pay and another set for those who are using their OHIP card.
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.
This May, tell the Ford government that you support single-tier universal health care that has no room for privatization.
For more information about OHC click here.
This article was originally published on Small Change.
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