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Ontario Health Coalition vows to stop new health care bill
Posted: March 22, 2019
The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is warning the province’s new omnibus health care bill will mean lost local services. Mar 22, 2019. (Photo by Paul Pedro)
MARCH 22, 2019 8:41PM
The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is taking action against the province’s new omnibus health care bill that could mean a loss of local services.
The group held a meeting in Windsor Friday evening to talk about the proposed legislation and its local impact. The new bill will merge the 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and six provincial health agencies, including Cancer Care Ontario and eHealth Ontario, into a “Super Agency”.
OHC Executive Director Natalie Mehra said the new bill will privatize health care.
“We’re really worried about privatization of health care services, the loss of any remaining local control over health care services,” Mehra said.
Mehra said the coalition is asking for public hearings and amendments.
“We have actually managed, the health coalition, to amend every major piece of health care legislation in the last 20 years in the public interest. So, we actually succeed at doing this,” she added.
Mehra said this new law has been forged in secret and is the worst piece of legislation she has ever seen.
“It’s terribly written, there’s nothing that meets the public interest in it. We’re calling for its repeal and we’ve almost never done that in our history,” Mehra said.
The coalition said it is gearing up to protect hospitals, long-term care, home care, community care, and mental health care with a rally at Queen’s Park on April 30.
The new law is currently going through the Ontario Legislature.
