The quality of your family’s health care shouldn’t be determined by the size of your paycheque.
That’s a core Canadian value. But now it’s in serious jeopardy.
Creeping privatization, planned spending cuts and a new court challenge could be the beginning of the end of public health care as we know it in Canada.
Recently in a Vancouver courtroom, Dr. Brian Day, who owns a private health care corporation, argued that laws banning fees and extra billing are unconstitutional.
Rick Turner, co-chair of the BC Health Coalition, said, “The case challenges the core values that underpin Canadian public health care: that our access to care should based on need, not on our ability to pay. It is difficult to overstate the threat this litigation poses to our health, equity and economy.”
A recent report warns the federal government that more private health services would be hazardous to the many Canadians who can’t afford for-profit care.
There are many potential negative consequences if there were to be more access to private health care, including greater income inequality, more people in dire financial straits and longer wait times.
Despite a change in government, Ottawa is still planning to slash annual health transfer increases to the provinces by half next year. That will take $1.1 billion out of the health care system in the first year alone.
These cuts will mean longer wait times, less doctors and nurses, and ultimately open the door further to efforts to privatize Canada’s health care system.
Our NDP caucus is leading the fight to defend our public health care system. Public health care is who we are. It is what we are. It is worth fighting to save.
