The healthcare system in Ontario is under severe strain. Doug Ford says that the way to fix the problem is to move procedures from hospitals to private for-profit clinics. Linda McQuaid writes that the system is struggling because Ford is starving it of funds:
Ontario is one of the richest provinces, but it spends less per person on health care than any other province.
If Ontario just spent the average of what the other provinces have spent on health care per capita over the past five years, we’d be spending an additional $7.2 billion this year — more than enough to properly pay our beleaguered nurses, lure thousands more nurses to Ontario and bring back into use countless hospital operating rooms all over the province idled by years of budget cuts.
Ford is not a bright guy. Consider his solutions:
Ford bizarrely insists on capping nurses’ pay increases at a punitive one per cent, denying reasonable compensation to people who hold the key to reviving the system.
Instead, Ford squanders money on tax breaks, giving up $8.2 billion in revenue annually from tax changes since 2018. And, when he gets additional health care funds from Ottawa in the upcoming federal-provincial deal, he could use those funds for further tax cutting, unless strings are firmly attached.
Allowing more private health care won’t solve this underfunding. It will simply mean more health services are carried out by profit-seeking entities that will pocket a share of the public money.
We know about the profit motive — it permeates the business world, driving corporate managers to slash costs in evermore innovative ways so they can deliver ever-larger profits to shareholders.
We've seen the profit motive at work in Ontario's private nursing homes:
It turns out Ontario has carried out what amounts to a real-life experiment on the impact of the profit motive in health care — in the case of long-term care homes, where private equity and other innovative forms of cutthroat capitalism have had free rein.
This real-life lab reveals that the profit motive operates pretty much the same in health care as in the corporate world: it has transformed nursing homes into lucrative businesses and, during the pandemic, into killing fields.
Indeed, given that COVID death rates were four times higher in profit-making long-term care homes, it’s odd that commentators aren’t crying: “we gotta do something different!”
Ford wants to extend that model into our hospitals.
It's pretty obvious. Our healthcare system is failing because Doug Ford is calling the shots.
Image: The Rabble
2 comments:
perhaps if Ontario has an increase in senior care home deaths due to Covid, some one could send Ford to those care homes, to see how he fares.
Why Ford wants to privitize health care is beyond me, but of course usually profit for some one is usually the reason. You'd think some one was paying Ford to make these decisions, but he is so dumb he does it for free. With some politicians its just they need their ego stroked and all these companies have to do is make the politicians feel important and smart, even when they're not.
Moving surgeries out of hospitals into these private for profit centers, will result in deaths. Less cleaning and if something goes side ways in surgery, there won't be other specialists and facilities to assist the patient.
Nurses in England aren't happy with their low salaries. All provinces who offer decent salaries have to do is advertise there. Back in the day probably late 60s or early 70s Ontario had a nurse shortage. They hired in Ireland and brought three jets filled with R.N.s who were able to start work immediately. Its that easy.
B.C. does pay higher wages than Ontario and Vancouver Island could use a few more.
We can only hope Trudeau has very strict rules about how provinces spend the money they receive for health care,like it has to be spent on health care in the public system and no money going to private for profit companies.
There isn't a real lack of money for health care. All the provinces have to do if they're short of funds, is increase the taxes. Now I understand Alberta will have a nervous breakdown, buy truly a sales tax for health care would work. People could decide if they want the tax or inadequate health care. My take on things is the provinces want Ottawa to come up with more money because the provincial politicians don't want to increase taxes so as not to upset voters. They'll let Trudeau take the hit.
The country has enough money, it just that government leaves so much in the accounts of the super wealthy and very profitable corporations along with all those tax breaks, trusts, etc.
The provinces were given the ability to raise more taxes, e.a.f. But you're right. They'll let Justin take the hit.
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