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EVENTS & ACTIONS: Become a Public Medicare Defender Today
Posted: March 13, 2022
(March 13, 2023)
We are calling on all Ontarians to help fight against the privatization. Become a Public Medicare Defender today to force Doug Ford to fix the crisis in our public hospital system and stop privatization.
To sign up to become a Public Medicare Defender, fill in the form found below the slideshow on our homepage here.
Province-Wide Community Referendum to Stop Ford Government’s Privatization of Our Public Hospitals
We are mounting a community-run referendum. Health Coalitions are organizing voting stations outside grocery stores, local corner stores, coffee shops, at Legions and community centres and in every busy part of our communities that we can.
On Friday May 26 and Saturday May 27 we will hold the referendum. More than a thousand voting stations will be open across Ontario. Leading in, throughout the month of May, online voting will be available on the main website PublicHospitalVote.ca and workplace votes will take place.
Click here for more information on how you can get involved
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Province-Wide Community Referendum Leaflet
Download a printable version of our referendum leaflet here
Our Public Hospitals are Not For Sale Leaflet
Download a printable version of our medicare leaflet here
Fact Sheet: The Ford Government’s Plan to Privatize Ontario’s Public Hospital Services
For 100 years, Ontario has built our system of local public hospitals that operate on a non-profit basis, in the public interest. Under the cover of the pandemic, the Ford government began to make plans to privatize Ontario’s public hospital services, including surgeries and diagnostics to private for-profit hospitals and clinics.
To learn more, download a printable version of our fact sheet here
Survey on Privatization of Public Health Care and its Impact on Patients
HAVE YOU BEEN CHARGED USER FEES FOR HEALTH CARE?
This survey is being conducted by the Ontario Health Coalition, a public interest group dedicated to protecting and improving public health care. The survey takes most people less than 5 minutes to complete and almost everyone finishes within 10 minutes. It’s really easy to do!
Needed medical services provided by hospitals and by doctors are supposed to be covered by OHIP, paid through our taxes and provided free when we are sick or in need. However, we are receiving complaints from patients who are being charged extra fees for this care.
The Canada Health Act says that patients cannot be charged these extra fees for medically necessary hospital and doctor services. Public health care is supposed to cover all Canadians equally, but sometimes private clinics or public hospitals charge extra to patients unlawfully.
Some examples of unlawful extra fees include:
- I was charged $2,000 for cataract surgery
- My mother was charged $50 for a consultation with a doctor
- The private clinic told my grandfather that he had to pay a fee for the clinic to keep his medical records
- My wife was charged a “facility fee” at the endoscopy clinic.
Sometimes private clinics charge fees for medically unnecessary tests or procedures. When you go in for cataract surgery which is a medically necessary procedure, for example, they might charge you for extra eye measurements that are medically unnecessary. Here are some examples:
- I was charged $200 for extra eye measurement tests when I went in for cataract surgery
- My father was charged a $50 fee for orange juice and a DVD at a private colonoscopy or endoscopy clinic
- My grandmother was told she should pay $1,500 for special lenses when she went in for cataract surgery.
We are concerned that the increase in extra charges threatens equal access to health care for Canadians.
We are hoping to find out what extra fees patients are being charged and whether or not patients are given a clear choice about paying fees for unnecessary services.
We will use the information to make a public report and submissions to the Minister of Health to stop extra user charges for patients and protect equal access to public health care for all Canadians. We will not include any patients’ names or personal information in the report. If you indicate that we can contact you to speak publicly about your experience we will do so, otherwise we will not use nor share your name. Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey.
