A giant 7’ tall teddy bear is making a stop Wallaceburg this weekend to warn about potential health care privatization.
The Ontario Health Coalition along with the Wallaceburg-Walpole Island First Nation Health Coalition are touring a giant teddy bear with the slogan ‘We Can’t Bear to Lose Medicare’ to 20 towns from late May to mid-June to raise awareness about the threat of health care privatization.
The group is planning to be at the Fountain Park in downtown Wallaceburg at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
“Canada’s public health care system is under threat by private profits-seeking clinics that want to take services out of our local public hospitals,” stated Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition.
“These private clinics bill OHIP for tests and surgeries and bill patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars as well. User fees for medically-needed hospital and physician care are unlawful under the Canada Health Act which requires that health care be publicly funded and equitable for all Canadians. We are drawing attention to this, explaining to patients their rights, and pushing back against the takeover of non-profit and public hospitals by private for-profit corporations.”
Health Coalition officials say private for-profit clinics are pushing to privatize services from local public hospitals.
Although the Ontario government has held out against wholesale privatization of diagnostics and surgeries, still, privatization has crept in, the Ontario Health Coalition says.
“Patients, often elderly, are shocked to find out that private clinics are charging user fees amounting to hundreds or even thousands of dollars for medically-needed care such as cataract surgeries. In provinces such as B.C. and Quebec, private clinics and extra user fees for patients have become a major problem, threatening single-tier public health care,” Ontario Health Coalition officials said in a press release.
“In B.C. private clinics have even launched a court challenge to bring down the laws that protect patients from user fees. They want to maximize their profits by billing the public health system and billing patients on top. The Ontario Health Coalition will raise funds along the way to help the B.C. Health Coalition intervene in the legal challenge brought by the private for-profit clinics, which threatens public health care all across Canada.”
For more details, visit: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
