Defend Public Healthcare

Tim Hudak, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, has clarified his position on health care user fees.  After initially refusing to say if he would crack down on illegal user fees, Hudak has now said he "will enforce the law." Good to know -- but I think the PCs have failed the universal health care test.   The Liberals had pounced on Hudak's hesitation ,  with Health Minister Deb Matthews stating that Hudak's key fundraiser, Shaun Francis, is the president of MedCan, the largest private health service provider in Canada.  (Hmmm... one might also want to examine some Liberal connections, especially as private clinics have grown rapidly under their watch .) On a per capita basis, Canadians make the third highest private cash payments for health care in the developed world.  Payments by Ontarians are higher than any other province and 50% higher than the Canada-wide average. The World Health Organization   identifies continued...

The Centre for the Study of Living Standards has released a report that concludes there has been a decline in the economic security of Canadians since 1981.   The cause?  The growing financial risk of illness, as measured by out-of pocket healthcare expenditures  (i.e. user fees).    The report notes, "In Canada, the proportion of personal disposable income being spent on healthcare increased from 2.65 per cent in 1981 to 5.59 per cent in 2010."  In Ontario, it's worse.  While in 1981 Ontario was at about the Canada-wide average, by 2010, Ontario was well above the Canadian average, with 6.28% of disposable income spent on healthcare. Despite this, the federal Liberal leader, Bob Rae has just come out and suggested Canadians should be open to discussing a role for private health insurance, Health Edition reported September 9.   For those without private insurance, this simply  means more (often unaffordable) user fees -- th...

Donald Drummond was recently part of a panel that made a (poorly received) report to  the Canadian Medical Association that recommended the expansion of user fees for Canadian health care (along with some other pro-privatization notions).   This was notable as Drummond is leading a commission on public services in Ontario (which, conveniently, will report  after  the provincial election October 6).   The panel report to the CMA comes as many private clinics are  introducing  ingenious user fees (e.g .$100 for a glass of orange juice-- I kid you  not ).   User fees will enable those with the extra cash to monopolize more of the time and trouble of doctors and other other health care professionals, while the rest of us -- well we will just have to make do.  This is all the more irksome as the well to do tend to be less in need of health care services than the less well set.  In any case, here are the words of the Director ...

An interesting blog piece by Jim Stanford concludes that "the higher... the out of pocket fees associated with medical care, the more individuals will cut back care when they are worried about their employment and economic security." Stanford is drawing on a new study entitled “The Economic Crisis and Medical Care Usage” which looked at the impact of the recession in five developed countries: the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, and Canada.  "Canada and the U.K. have the lowest user fees among the five countries surveyed; and in those countries, there was virtually no change under the recession in patterns of care utilization." The U.S., without a universal health care system (and much higher out of pocket fees), fared much worse.  When compared with Canadians, almost five times as many Americans reported reducing their use of routine medical services during the recent recession. dallan@cupe.ca