Moving public health services to for-profit clinics raises ‘legitimate concerns’: Duclos
Global News
Ontario’s plan to expand private delivery of public health care raises 'legitimate concerns' about equitable access to needed health services, says Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos
Ontario’s controversial plan to expand the private delivery of public health care raises “legitimate concerns” about whether diverting millions of taxpayer dollars into for-profit clinics could erode equitable access to public health services, says federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
Speaking to reporters in Prince Edward Island on Tuesday, Duclos said that Ottawa has no intention of “micromanaging” provincial and territorial hospitals and health systems and that he believes all health ministers across the country want to uphold the principles of the Canada Health Act.
However, he says conversations are needed to ensure moving more public health services into the private sector doesn’t erode the right that all Canadians have to equitable health care access, which is enshrined in that federal legislation.
“There has to be a discussion as to whether investing in the private provision of health care services weakens the public provision of public health-care services, and that’s an important discussion to have,” Duclos said.
The federal health minister was reacting to a three-step plan announced Monday by the Doug Ford government to spend millions to move more health procedures to private clinics in Ontario as a way to tackle long waiting lists.
Initially, the initiative will see simple, non-invasive procedures handled by some 900 privately operated surgical and diagnostic clinics currently operating in Ontario. Future steps of the plan will see hip and knee replacements also handed over to for-profit clinics.
This move alone could provide a windfall of over $500 million annually to private health clinics, based on figures from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that show Ontario performs roughly 32,000 knee replacements and 25,000 hip replacements every year, at an average cost of between $8,000 and $10,000 per procedure.
Ford stressed all surgeries and tests will be paid for by the taxpayer-funded Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) and that no one will pay for these procedures with their credit cards.