Liberal prime minister Mark Carney's "openness" to conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's efforts to expand private two-tier health care in Alberta has not gone unnoticed by proponents of US-style, market-based, private health care in Canada who are praising it.
Although European countries with mixed private and public healthcare are sometimes cited as mocels, Canada's proximity to the United States and it largely for-profit healthcare system, as well as corporate interests in a similar conversion.
This federal Liberal stance is a particular danger here in Ontario where Doug Ford's Conservatives have been chipping away at our public health care system and showing an affinity for health care privatization and two-tiered health care.
NDP MPs Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona) and Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni) have been sounding the alarm
“In Canada, universal public health care is part of who we are,” said Johns, the NDP Health Critic. “The Prime Minister cannot simply stand by while it is dismantled province by province. The groups cheering the Prime Minister’s silence are not health care workers or everyday Canadians who rely on Medicare. They are organizations that have spent years pushing for more privatization and a greater role for profit in Canadian health care.”
Albertans are already seeing the consequences of policies that shift doctors, surgeries, and resources into for-profit delivery while making it harder for families to access timely public care. The federal government has a responsibility to uphold the Canada Health Act and ensure that every Canadian can access care based on their health needs, not their income.
“In Canada, a person’s income should never determine whether they get the care they need,” said McPherson. “The Prime Minister says he wants to work collaboratively with the provinces, but that collaboration cannot include supporting clear threats to the future of public health care.”
The support from privatization lobbyists with ties to US tobacco and pharmaceutical companies as well as the notorious Koch Brothers raises important questions about what’s motivating the Prime Minister’s refusal to defend Canadian health care.
This is not to say that public healthcare is without problems. In Ontario, Doug Ford's Conservative governments healthcare cuts, closures, and restrictions
have in fact made public health care less accessible and attractive for many Ontarians. Yet, that is an engineered reality that may
be leading us down the two-tiered health care path that Alberta is on now.
That said, “There’s a lot the federal government can and should be doing with the provinces to improve health care across Canada,” said Johns. “Instead of ushering in the end of universal public health care, the Prime Minister needs to increase health transfers and enforce the Canada Health Act.”
NDP MPs Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona) and Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni) have been sounding the alarm:
“In Canada, universal public health care is part of who we are,” said Johns, the NDP Health Critic. “The Prime Minister cannot simply stand by while it is dismantled province by province. The groups cheering the Prime Minister’s silence are not health care workers or everyday Canadians who rely on Medicare. They are organizations that have spent years pushing for more privatization and a greater role for profit in Canadian health care.”
Albertans are already seeing the consequences of policies that shift doctors, surgeries, and resources into for-profit delivery while making it harder for families to access timely public care. The federal government has a responsibility to uphold the Canada Health Act and ensure that every Canadian can access care based on their health needs, not their income.
“In Canada, a person’s income should never determine whether they get the care they need,” said McPherson. “The Prime Minister says he wants to work collaboratively with the provinces, but that collaboration cannot include supporting clear threats to the future of public health care.”
The support from privatization lobbyists with ties to US tobacco and pharmaceutical companies as well as the notorious Koch Brothers raises important questions about what’s motivating the Prime Minister’s refusal to defend Canadian health care.
This is not to say that public healthcare is without problems. In Ontario, Doug Ford's Conservative governments healthcare cuts, closures, and restrictions have, in fact, made public health care less accessible and attractive for many Ontarians. Yet, that is an engineered reality that seems to be being used to lead us down the two-tiered health care path that Alberta is on now.
That said, “There’s a lot the federal government can and should be doing with the provinces to improve health care across Canada,” said Johns. “Instead of ushering in the end of universal public health care, the Prime Minister needs to increase health transfers and enforce the Canada Health Act.”
