Ford’s nervousness is understandable, given that many Canadians have an almost Pavlovian reaction to hearing the words “private” and “healthcare” nearby. Much of the media coverage following the Prime Minister’s announcement certainly seemed to confirm the concerns, with progressive outlet headlines accusing Ford of:Privatization of hospitals‘ and ‘make’Dramatic step towards privatization of health care in Ontario” a animation At the Toronto Star, Ford drives a hearse with a sign reading “Universal Health Care on Board.”
Ontario Opposition New Democratic Party swore To Fight “Ford’s Healthcare Privatization Plan”cannibalism“Public Health and Millions of Taxes”CEO of for-profit American Style Care.”
The shamelessness of such rhetoric is astonishing. For little reason other than to escalate public ignorance and anxiety about the state of health care in Canada.
Canada’s public healthcare system has always been based primarily on government-provided health. insurancebeing run by the provinces, Canada differs from public systems like the UK, which are based on a single system of government administration. provider — in the UK, the National Health Service — runs hospitals and directly employs doctors, nurses and surgeons. Government-run hospitals are the norm in Canada, but many other medical services that Canadians rely on are provided by private companies (especially doctors) who simply bill government insurance plans. According to the federal fund, about 80 percent of Canadian doctors work as private practitioners in one way or another.
At a press conference, Ford himself said public insurance coverage for privately-run services has long been part of the Ontario state of affairs.
Unfortunately, Canadians often seem oblivious to this reality. The casual understanding of Canadian healthcare tends to be far more dogmatically black and white than the system itself, with the private and public sectors supposed to be in a zero-sum battle in which only one survives. Such naivety was made possible by the anti-American patriotism cult prevalent in Canada. In Canada, “free healthcare” is always claimed as Canada’s defining advantage. self-pay). This is a proven myth good for nation-building and political demagogues, but not so good for actually maintaining quality healthcare for Canadians themselves.
Despite the fear-mongering about his “privatization plan,” what Ford is actually trying to do is very similar to nationalization. As waiting times for all kinds of surgeries in Canada get longer, unprecedented high Due to chronic capacity problems in public hospitals, the Government of Ontario should allow non-governmental clinics to perform legally impossible medical procedures and reimburse the public who use them. The set-up doesn’t quite resemble Canadian folklore’s march into an “American-style” horror story. Ford says, “You can access these services with an OHIP card, it’s never your credit card.”
The various heated commentaries written in response to Ford’s announcement do little to dispute these facts. So much relies on empty slogans. Critics of Ford can only glean theories, not the concrete. By incorporating more private clinics into the public system, perhaps Final Lure some surgeons out of public hospitalsAlternatively, private clinics could, in theory, sometimes,try it”upsellSome stupid members of the public that government insurance doesn’t cover. (“Ill people under pressure to have surgery are easy signs of pressured sales tactics.”) fret one columnist).
It’s worth remembering that the alternative to these abstract worries is the immediate reality. quality of life is greatly reduced, deathcaused by delays in essential medical procedures far beyond what a wealthy country like Canada could tolerate.
Would it be better to wait to die in a public hospital than to get free care in a private hospital? In the hyper-ideological world of Canadian health care discourse, it seems like an argument to be taken seriously.
