Health care privatization

By Jesse and Maggie, on behalf of the Leadnow team

Ontario’s health care system is in crisis. People are experiencing outrageous wait times and critical surgeries are being postponed. [1,2] Health care workers are facing terrible conditions with no support from the government. [3] And there’s a drastic shortage of family doctors, nurses and paramedics. [4-6]

Ann, per capita, Ontario now has the lowest health care and hospital funding, and the fewest hospital beds and nurses in the country. [7]

But instead of investing in nurses or funding and resourcing ICUs, Ford is going to hand over our public health care system to for-profit companies — privatizing hospitals, clinics or long-term care homes. It’s already happening. [8-10]

Research shows private health care means poorer care, higher rates of death and longer wait times. [11] It means profit over lives.

Fresh off an election victory, Ford is now deciding his priorities for his new government. It’s a prime time to send him a clear message about what Ontarians want. If we can show a massive groundswell of opposition against his health care sell-off plans, we can prove the public won’t stand idly by as Ford privatizes our health care piece by piece.

Will you sign the petition now and call on the Ontario government to stop the sell-off?

Privatization would create a massive divide in our health care system, where doctors charge huge fees for procedures, overall wait times skyrocket, and the quality of care plummets. It would turn patients’ injuries and illnesses into a profit-making machine.

And the push to privatize is already having grave consequences. Over 4,500 seniors have died in long-term care homes throughout the pandemic. Tragically, the death rate in for-profit homes is 25% higher — and deplorable conditions have been reported by families including insufficient safety protocols, not enough PPE and chronic understaffing. [12]

Despite this, just last month Ford announced he was awarding those same companies with big new contracts — much more than any non-profit or governmental facilities. [13]

After years of attacks on public health care, the answer is not to hand more of it over to private corporations. In fact, that’s what brought Ontario’s health care system to the brink of collapse.

The fight for a strong, well-funded public health care system is the fight to save lives. It’s a fundamental pillar of a democratic society that prioritizes people above profit. If you think that our health care should stay public, will you sign the petition now? It takes less than 30 seconds.

Sources:
[1] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/05/20/toronto-sickkids-er-wait-times/
[2] https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/we-cant-keep-going-like-that-frustration-increases-as-surgical-backlog-piles-up
[3] https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-nurses-planning-to-leave-the-field-in-droves-poll-finds
[4] https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis/
[5] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-queen-s-university-new-program-family-doctors-1.6448499#:~:text=In%202019%20Statistics%20Canada%20reported,the%20system%20as%20a%20whole.
[6] https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/05/18/ontario-has-a-severe-shortage-of-registered-nurses-how-did-we-get-here.html
[7] https://monitormag.ca/articles/ontario-health-spending-will-be-too-low-if-the-2022-budget-is-passed
[8] https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/03/15/doug-fords-government-is-quietly-privatizing-health-care.html
[9] https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2022/05/27/doug-ford-is-spending-billions-to-expand-nursing-home-chains-with-some-of-the-worst-covid-19-death-rates.html
[10] https://pressprogress.ca/here-are-all-the-corporations-lobbying-doug-ford-to-privatize-and-outsource-parts-of-ontarios-health-care-system/
[11] https://www.cmaj.ca/content/166/11/1399
[12] https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2022/05/23/remember-why-our-seniors-died-in-long-term-care-homes.html
[13] see 8