Friday, April 01, 2022

Ford And Profit

When it comes to COVID, Doug Ford says he's opening up Ontario. When it comes to health-care, Bob Hepburn writes, Ford is opening up our health-care system to  privatization:

Since assuming power in 2018, Ford and his Conservative government have increased the role of private health-care companies in everything from diagnostic testing clinics, long-term care homes and home-care service providers.

And now the government is even suggesting it’s about to open the door for more private hospitals in Ontario.

Importantly, all these moves could ultimately undermine our current public health-care system, which is based on the principle that medically necessary health care should be allocated on the basis of medical need, not on the ability to pay.

Ford claims he's a big supporter of medicare. But his actions suggest otherwise:

While Ford and his cabinet ministers insist they are still strong backers of public health care and point to increased spending on hospitals and slightly higher pay for nurses to back up their case, the evidence actually points to a deliberate and concerted move by Ford to allow more for-profit health care in Ontario.

Most worrisome is a clear desire by Ford to bring in private hospitals, which cater to rich patients who want to jump the queue when it comes to non-emergency care and which do little or nothing to ease the demands on public hospitals.

During a speech in February promoting the reopening of health-care services as the COVID-19 pandemic eased, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the Ford government was “opening up pediatric surgeries, cancer screenings, making sure that we can let independent health facilities operate private hospitals, all of those things are possible.” Elliott has subsequently announced she won’t seek re-election.

Private hospitals have been banned in Ontario since 1973. Private hospitals operating at that time, such as the Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Toronto, were allowed to remain open.

On long-term care homes, Ford is in the process of handing out new 30-year licences to for-profit companies that will result in 18,000 more long-term care beds in the province. The move comes despite proof during the current pandemic that private long-term care facilities had twice as high average death rates among residents, had fewer staff on duty and paid lower wages than public facilities.

On home care, the government is moving to privatize what remains of this critical sector, which is already dominated by private service providers. Private firms win government contracts by offering the cheapest service rates possible — all at the expense of patients in need and front-line staff who deserve more pay.

On private labs, Ford has severely restricted access to publicly funded PCR tests for COVID, thus bolstering private testing clinics that often charge patients more than $200 for the vital tests once provided by the government.

In Mr. Ford's experience, profit makes the world go round. There is an election coming in two months. 

Image: reddit


9 comments:

zoombats said...

I hope the he makes his stock portfolio open for public viewing and is prepared to defend his actions when he and his cronies are found to be shareholders.

Northern PoV said...

Strange days indeed.

The fact that Jr. gets Red ON votes at the Fed level and Drug Ford gets the same votes as Blues, means that our modern politics are hopelessly schizoid and/or, in reality, there is very little difference between the two worn-out brands.

Anonymous said...

The problems with healthcare privatization are well-known.
1. The private sector demands profit. This leads to three outcomes, all of them bad. The government can pay more for private services; it can pay the same leading to reduced service through cost-cutting; or it can not pay at all leading to the rich buying services at the expense of everyone else.
2. No surge capacity. Surge capacity costs money that the private sector has no incentive to spend.
3. Privatization reduces the effectiveness of public healthcare. There is a relatively fixed number of healthcare providers. Allocating some to service the rich means fewer for everyone else.
4. Privatization is costly to reverse. As the Shouldice Hernia Hospital shows, once the private sector has a foot in the door, it's hard to slam the door shut.

Unfortunately, there is never any shortage of greedy Canadian physicians willing to donate to politicians who promise privatization. There are also wealthy American healthcare corporations who would love to expand here. And Ford's re-election campaign isn't going to finance itself.

Cap

Anonymous said...

The Con Provincial governments in New Brunswick, Alberta, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan are doing exactly the same thing as Ford. So, it seems these Con Premiers. are all in agreement regarding Health Care. Does this mean Mr Harper is winning through the back door? Has anyone noticed how the CBC doesn’t know Newfoundland & Labrador exists any more? Anyong

Owen Gray said...

As Ricky told Lucy, zoombats, he's got "some splainin' to do."

Owen Gray said...

Both options are true, PoV.

Owen Gray said...

Ford knows where the money is, Cap. And he knows what he needs to do to get it.

Anonymous said...

Cap…. Most Canadians want to be billionaires at the expense of the environment. Until people (know) over population is the problem, Canadians will continue to exploit other Canadians. One day the Sun will burn out. Anyong

Owen Gray said...

Good question, Anyong. The winner of the federal Conservative leadership race will be the answer to your question.