LEAFLET: Ontario Health Coalition Leaflet & petition for Labour Day events and market tables

Posted: August 28, 2025

(August 28, 2025)

Click here for printable version of the English leaflet

Click here for printable version of the Simplified Chinese leaflet

Click here for printable version of the Traditional Chinese leaflet

We have a new leaflet ready for Labour Day events and market tables. It is designed to print either in black & white or in colour. We also have a petition to the federal government, asking them to uphold the Canada Health Act and enforce it against the Ford government who are expanding private clinics and allowing them to extra-bill patients and charge user fees with impunity. This violates our Public Medicare laws that were created to protect patients from these charges. The content of the leaflet is included in the body of this email and the petition is below it.

For a printable version of the leaflet, click here.

Printable versions of the petition can be found as follows:

• English horizontal petition
• English vertical petition
• French horizontal petition
• French vertical petition

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Help stop the plundering of our
public health care for profit

Public hospitals’ operating rooms idle while patients wait

Ontario funds our public hospitals at the lowest rate of any province. At the same time, the Ford government is redirecting more than a billion dollars per year from our public taxes to fund private for-profit clinics & staffing corporations.

For-profit clinics charge patients $$ thousands in illegal (& unethical) user fees for surgeries & tests

Maureen needed eye surgery for macular degeneration so she wouldn’t lose her vision. A private clinic charged her $7,000. She told us, “Being a senior on a fixed income, I’m still trying to catch up with my bills from the surgery.”

This should NEVER happen. The Ontario government is responsible for enforcing our medicare laws to protect patients like Maureen from extra-billing & user fees. Medically needed surgeries & tests must be covered by OHIP. That’s the law.

Last spring, we made a complaint to the Ford government from 50 patients – including Maureen – who were charged or manipulated into paying for medically unnecessary add ons in private clinics. The patients should be reimbursed & the clinics should be stopped.

We’re making another complaint this fall to push the Ford government to stop them. If you’ve been charged for your surgery, please contact us.

Ontario has downsized our hospitals to an extreme extent.
We are last in Canada & third from the bottom among developed nations.

In 1990, Ontario had 50,000 hospital beds for 10.3 million people. Today, we only have 35,000 for 16.2 million people.

According to data from the OECD, only Chile & Mexico have fewer hospital beds per person than Ontario.

Why? Because everything they cut from public hospitals is privatized.

NOTE: A “hospital bed” means a bed that is funded with nurses, doctors & other staff providing care. When they close down “beds” it means they cut staff & the care they provide. Patients are backlogged in emergency departments because they are waiting for a funded bed to open up for them inside the hospital, while thousands of beds have been closed down & could be reopened.

Please send a message to Doug Ford: You can’t say you stand up for Canada while privatizing our health care

The United States has the most privatized health care in the developed world. Americans pay almost double our costs for care.

The Ford government is privatizing more & more of our long-term care and hospital surgeries & diagnostics. They’re giving primary care to for-profit chains, privatizing Public Health services like COVID testing, vaccines & more. They’re allowing private clinics to bill OHIP & charge patients on top. They’re moving toward U.S.-style for-profit health care.

U.S. for-profit hospitals charge exorbitant prices. Businesses face high insurance costs for employees. On top, employees pay co-payments every paycheque plus they have to pay deductibles before coverage kicks in…IF they are covered. Insurance companies make profits by denying coverage.

Medical costs are the top reason for bankruptcy: 56 million Americans struggle with medical debt: more than Canada’s entire population.

Every one of us can make a difference

• Hand out leaflets in your neighbourhood, at work, in local businesses & community groups.
• Print off the petition to call on the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act and require the Ford government to stop the private clinics charging patients (at: www.StopForProfitHealthcare.ca).
• Join your local Health Coalition & help build the fightback. You can find your nearest health coalition here: www.StopForProfitHealthcare.ca
• Send a message to Doug Ford and your local MPP to tell them to stop privatizing our health care.

Did You Know

The Canada Health Act bans user fees for patients. OHIP covers all medically needed surgeries & diagnostic tests. Access to care is based on medical need, not how rich we are. That’s what Canadian Public Medicare means.

As private clinics have taken over services, they have brought in illegal charges & upselling. They bill OHIP & charge patients fees on top. Instead of stopping them, the Ford government is expanding them.

A final thought

In this challenging time, with Canada’s sovereignty threatened, we need to reaffirm our commitment to the best of our values. Sovereignty is meaningless if we become just like the U.S.

Canadians created public health care to care for one another when we are sick, elderly, & least able to pay. Our public health care is grounded in values of equity & compassion.

Privatization & cuts cause the same kind of suffering that led us to create public health care in the first place. Now, more than ever, we must protect & restore it, for people not for corporate profit.