OPSEU is wrong to paint reforms as a threat to publicly funded health care, writes Åke Blomqvist. Read more.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.The commercial’s cynical use of emotional imagery mirrors some of the crude tactics of conspiracy theorists who imply the government has a nefarious secret agenda. But its basic message is simply wrong. Bill 60 is not about privatization. Nor is it a threat to publicly funded health care. All it does is give the government more flexibility in how it contracts for the production of health-care services.
Under the Canada Health Act, the cornerstone of Canadian medicare is that the cost of all “medically necessary” physician and hospital services should be paid for by each province’s insurance plan, with no out-of-pocket payments from patients. But while services must beby private firms, or in privately owned facilities. In Ontario, the production of most health services has long since been out-sourced: it takes place under contracts with private providers.
Surgeons and others who are interested in starting free-standing clinics presumably think they can provide services more efficiently than traditional hospitals can, even given the detailed rules they would have to abide by regarding the quality of care. For one thing, new independent clinics would not be bound by the collective agreements existing employers have negotiated with their unions and would therefore have more flexibility in both hiring and managing their human resources.
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