Ontario Health Coalition holding event Nov. 3 at Moose Lodge

NEWS RELEASE

SAULT STE. MARIE AND DISTRICT LABOUR COUNCIL

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Ontario Health Coalition — public meeting — all invited.

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.

Moose Lodge, 543 Trunk Rd., Sault Ste. Marie

Zoom link: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/9L4wyv_VR06eyc3v4hWduA

On behalf of the Ontario Health Coalition of Sault Ste. Marie:

There’s no time to lose. Either we all fight for public health care now, or it’ll be gone.

Alberta has passed dangerous new legislation that ends universal public health care in Alberta and threatens it across Canada. It allows private clinics to charge patients for surgeries and tests, enables the wealthy to skip the queue and pressures everyone else to pay, wait longer, or go without.

It’s not an abstract threat. Alberta started enacting the law Oct. 1.

We need to mount enough public and political pressure to stop them.

While not quite as draconian as Alberta’s new law, Ontario and Quebec patients also face user fees for needed health care that should never be allowed under the Canada Health Act.

In Ontario, the Ford government has deliberately chosen to set funding rates for our public hospitals lower than they need to be to maintain existing services to be forcing them into deficit. Hospitals then must make cuts to eliminate their deficits. At the same time, the Ford government is shunting literally hundreds of millions in public money over to private/for-profit clinics to privatize their services. In addition, the Ford government is allowing privatization of primary care with pay-your-way nurse practitioner clinics and online companies.

For the north and rural communities, things are even worse. The private clinics are locating in the largest urban centres, taking funding and services away from those communities.

Both in Ontario and Quebec, the richest patients are buying faster access to care while wait times for the majority are worse and costs are much higher.

These things should never happen under our public medicare laws.

Together, our efforts are slowing this privatization agenda down, dramatically. And when we fight back we are able to stop them, often. But we need to raise our voices now, in no uncertain terms, because the future of our health care is at stake.

Come to our urgent town hall meeting and please share this message widely.

We need your help to build the fight back. Please do share this message as widely as possible.

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