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Ontario Health Coalition |
MEDIA RELEASE |
February 6, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Attention: Assignment Editors
Coalition Appeals to Romanow: Learn What Not to Do from Ontario
Toronto - Reacting to the pre-report release from the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, Ontario Health Coalition spokespeople expressed grave concern over the four options outlined by the Commission for "reformed" health care. Using Ontario as an example, the coalition drew attention to the failures of increased privatization of healthcare.
"Ontario stands as a tragic lesson to the rest of the country of what not to do to a public healthcare system", stated Irene Harris, coalition co chair. "We have massive duplication, waste and profit-taking in homecare. We have a huge for-profit long term care system that constantly pushes for decreased staffing regulations and care levels. We have for-profit laboratories that have found any means they can to impose user fees and get ever more government funding at the same time. You want to see costs spiral out of control and quality of service decline? Hand over health services to profit-seeking corporations."
The Ontario Health Coalition today repeated its call for a single-payer, non-profit, universal, comprehensive system. The Coalition also made a strong appeal for progressive reform of primary care and an extension of the principles of the Canada Health Act to cover patients who have been dumped out from under the protection of Medicare through hospital closures into the unprotected sectors of home and long term care.
"We are disappointed that Mr. Romanow did not explicitly promote these options to Ontarians and Canadians in his designated scenarios", continued Ms. Harris. "He cannot let shortsighted bullying destroy the future for generations. The 25,000 waiting for beds in nursing homes, the thousands of seniors who just had their homecare services cut, all Ontarians who pay more out of pocket than any other Canadians for healthcare, we're all counting on Mr. Romanow to take a strong leadership position and shore up, defend and extend the principles upon which we created Medicare in the first place."