Canada’s NDP calls on Trudeau to take a stand for Canadian health care « Canada’s NDP
Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s NDP, responded with the following statement to Premier Doug Ford’s decision to hand part of Ontario’s health care system over to for-profit corporations:
“World-class health care should be waiting for you when you need it. We can best deliver that by rebuilding and growing our public system — not allowing Conservative premiers to decimate it with American-style for-profit health corporations. Protecting public universal Canadian health care should be a condition that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau puts on provinces to receive funding — but instead, Trudeau is turning his back so Conservatives and their friends can profit off pain and illness.
Premier Doug Ford’s decision to give part of our health care system to for-profit corporations will mean a deeper hospital staffing crisis, longer waits, and inevitable fees for patients.
With privatization, ER and surgery wait times will grow because the private clinics poach nurses and doctors. The urgent care crisis will get worse.
According to Ontario’s Auditor General, you will get a bill. Health care companies upsell OHIP patients, getting you to pay extra to upgrade to brands they recommend, buy physical therapy consultations, and even pay for your hospital bed.
We have seen the kind of care people get when profits are the priority — just look at the brutal, deadly and disgusting conditions in for-profit long-term care homes during the pandemic.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario opposes for-profit surgical centres. The Ontario Nurses Association and Registered Nurses of Ontario oppose for-profit medicine. The fact that Ontario’s doctors and nurses oppose this says it all. Privatization is bad for patients.
Trudeau is ready to let the provinces funnel federal health care dollars into the pockets of for-profit corporate investors. I’m not. When I’m Prime Minister, we’ll rebuild the public, universal system.”