University of Toronto health policy professor Raisa Deber told Global News that private health care differs from many other services because it is based on need, so for-profit centres could overcharge or upsell services that aren’t necessary given the consumer’s lack of knowledge but need for care.

“One of the problems that you run into is that market forces don’t work in health care,” she said.

“People get very nervous when you start throwing for-profit into the mix because it gives absolutely the wrong incentives to the providers.”

She pointed to the pharmaceutical industry as an example, where drugs can be sold for higher costs to drive profit and are still bought by consumers because they are needed.

While privatization of some services is being considered in provinces like Ontario and others due to long wait times and backlogs in the public system, the report noted that wait times in Ontario for “many priority procedures” are the shortest in Canada, such as for hip and knee replacement in 2022.

In May, the Ontario government passed Bill 60, which encourages the growth of for-profit health care for some surgeries and imaging. Less than two per cent of surgeries in Ontario were done in for-profit facilities in 2021-2022, CCPA said.

Rather than turn to privatization, the report recommends efforts to improve the public system, “not undermine it.”

“Ontario does not lack the physical space and equipment to improve wait times for surgeries and medical imaging; what is missing is the health care workforce and funding necessary to do the work,” Longhurst said.

The report recommends funding and staffing underused public hospital operating rooms and performing surgeries during the evening and weekends, as well as increasing hospital bed capacity.