What’s being privatized?

Nobody should be going into medical debt in Canada!

Public-Private Partnership (“P3”) Hospitals like Brampton Civic and Peel Memorial

Brampton Civic Hospital was Ontario’s first P3 Hospital, and went $300 million over budget, costing us a proper expansion of Peel Memorial into a second hospital. Brampton Civic Hospital was supposed to be a second hospital, NOT a replacement, and people in Brampton and Caledon have paid the price.

Private Staffing Agencies

For-Profit Staffing Agencies are now staffing a lot of our understaffed hospitals, because of poor working conditions and unconstitutional wage freezing by Ford with Bill 124, which was defeated in February 2024. These agencies charge multiple times the rates that we would pay if we just paid public nurses and healthcare workers properly, because there is an inherent siphon for profit.

Surgeries

Cataract Surgery has been privatized already quite successfully (for the companies charging people both with their OHIP card and their credit card), and now the province is moving into knee, hip, and shoulder replacements.

Testing

Testing like MRIs, endoscopy, COVID-19 testing, and more have been privatized.

Primary Care

Private companies like Maple are now providing primary care services online, and charging for the service. There are also private clinics charging user fees for Nurse Practitioner Services instead of giving advanced practice practitioners more of a home in our public healthcare system.

COVID-19 Vaccinations and Testing

During COVID-19, the Ford government switched testing and vaccination to private companies.

Long-Term Care

Long-Term Care was privatized by the conservative government under Mike Harris, who is now Chair of the Board for Long Term Care chain Chartwell. Private companies had horrible death rates during the pandemic and they’re now being expanded by Doug Ford!

Home Care

Home care was privatized at the same time as Long Term Care, and now home care has families managing an inadequate sum of money to pay private companies themselves under family managed care, and there is not nearly enough being covered. Ford has now further privatized home care with Bill 135.

FACT SHEET: Home Care Privatization

What will they privatize next?

Every time we allow this government to privatize one more thing in our healthcare system we get further away from the ideals and the practice of Universal Healthcare, and closer to a two-tier system, crushing medical debt, and growing health inequity similar to our neighbours to the south.

This is an fundamental threat to our Canadian identity as people who care about the health of everyone, no matter their circumstances. We need MORE universal healthcare, not LESS!

PRIVATIZATION QUICK FACTS!

The Ontario Government underspent its own healthcare budget by $1.7 billion last year, and funds its public hospitals at the lowest rate in Canada.
Private hospitals and clinics have been routinely overcharging by 3-10x the cost, upselling medically unnecessary services, and simultaneously billing OHIP and the patient. All of these practices are federally illegal under the Canada Health Act.
Our surgical backlog could be erased in just a few months by extending the hours of our existing operating rooms, which are sitting empty on late afternoons, evenings, and weekends.
Privatization punishes poverty, seniors, disabled people, and the middle class, especially considering the cost of living crisis, and can make people delay care or lose their home.
Private clinics have worse safety records, worse effectiveness, and take the easier, more profitable cases from public hospitals, leaving complex, expensive care to public hospitals, decimating their budget.

Private clinics take staff from public hospitals, whose staff are underpaid and burnt out. A record number of emergency rooms have temporarily or permanently closed in the past year, in large part to staffing issues.