Tag Archives: Health Care Privitization

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

Waterloo Region Health Coalition Calls for Public Vote on Health Care Privatization

Leave a comment

MP Holmes
Kitchener, ON

Waterloo Region Health Coalition has called for the Ontario government to hold a public vote on healthcare privatization in Ontario.

Jim Stewart of the Health Care Advocacy Group criticized the government’s privatization agenda, and the lack of clear communication both during the 2022 election and since, arguing privatization lacks public support and undermines the public system.

The Ontario Health Coalition highlights significant underfunding of public hospitals by the Ford administration, leading to increased wait times and operational challenges.

While Kitchener Conestoga MPP Mike Harris, Jr. defended the government’s health care spending (but provided no citations for his claims), Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy argued the government has been underfunding the system, ultimately increasing the costs for taxpayers and creating a two-tier system.

 

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

New report sounds alarm that Ontario taxpayers’ money is being diverted from public hospitals to private health care

Leave a comment

MP Holmes Kitchener, ON

Public hospitals in Ontario have been starved of billions of dollars under the Ford government while private health clinics have received a windfall of taxpayers’ funds, according to a new report by the Ontario Health Coalition.

“Robbing the Public to Build Private: the Ford Government’s Hospital Privatization Scheme” was released by the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, in part with the larger Ontario Health Coalition, at the Waterloo Public Library on Feb. 21.

According to the OHC report, over the last few years, private clinics in Ontario received a 212 per cent increase in funding in one year, rising from approximately $38 million in 2022-23 to over $120 million in 2023-24. At the same time, public hospitals received an increase of 0.5 per cent to their operating budgets. In Kitchener alone, this underfunding has manifested in 140 vacant RN positions due to lack of funding.

CKMS has more on the story.