REPORT: OHC Primary Care Reform Position Paper

Posted: May 15, 2002

(May 2002)

For years, health care advocates and their organizations have pushed for true primary care reform that will deliver to Ontarians more access and better services. However, the provincial government and the Ontario Medical Association are in the process of hijacking this reform and are working to create corporatized, for-profit, HMO-style Primary Care. The piloting of physician controlled primary care groups, combined with the new right to incorporate, will result in a dramatic acceleration of privatization. The danger posed by this to Ontarians cannot be overstated. There is an urgent need to create a public, not-for-profit system of Primary Care in Ontario, but this is not what they have in mind. We are therefore calling on the public and all member organizations to become actively engaged in the struggle for a Primary Care system that meets our needs and reflects our interests. Primary Care, as with all sectors of our health care system, requires adequate funding, resources and staffing and is integral to a public, not-for-profit single-tier health care system.

Position Paper May 2002