Its evidence-based approach spoke to the threat public clinics have on Ontarians’ access to publicly-funded medical care, and how for-profit clinics use deceptive upselling methods, effectively “baiting” patients with the promise of publicly covered procedures, only to “switch” or add significant out-of-pocket-fees.

“What we really have is instead of add-ons, we have takeaways,” Jardin said. “What this government has been doing is essentially funnelling money from the public health hospitals, our public hospitals, and putting it into private clinics. Really, it still remains unlawful to charge people for healthcare, to charge for things that are medically necessary, and yet we are seeing now with the private clinics that there is actually double billing. There is overcharging and there’s upselling, so that’s a real problem.”

In 2021 the Ford government awarded licenses to private clinics so they could perform eye surgeries, such as for cataracts, at a time when wait times were long. Although Premier Doug Ford has previously said that residents would pay with their OHIP card, never their credit card, the report found that patients were upsold unnecessary procedures, sometimes walking away with bills as high as $8,000.

For Kingston resident and Queen’s University Professor Emerita, Leda Raptis, that’s exactly what happened to her.

“In my own experience of cataract surgery, I paid 3,000 bucks (per eye). It’s just so insane,” said Raptis, who compared the price difference to Germany, where her mother-in-law had the same surgery for approximately $700.

“European countries can have public and private systems operating in parallel while regulating what private providers charge,” Raptis wrote in a letter to Member of Parliament for Kingston and The Islands, Mark Gerretsen. “I am very concerned that expansion of for-profit care in Canada, particularly with the potential involvement of large U.S health care and insurance corporations, will instead lead up toward American-style prices and access based on ability to pay.”

According to the report, a study by the Canadian Medical Association found that between 2017 and 2022, 93,5729 cataract surgeries were conducted. Within private for-profit centres, the rate of surgeries rose by 22 per cent, while those with a lower socioeconomic status having surgery in a publicly funded hospital fell by 8.5 per cent.

The report also argues that even though the investments in private clinics have only hit hundreds of millions, that money could have better used in the public system. It also points out that unlike private hospitals and clinics, public hospital operational funding has not met increases in inflation alone, let alone the growth of communities.

Public hospital operational funding increased from nearly $24.3 billion to close to $27.5 billion between 2020 and 2024.

The report noted that the increase of $3.8 billion did not keep up with the cost of living or Ontario’s population, which increased by 9.1 per cent between 2020-2026.

“In my own experience of cataract surgery, I paid 3000 bucks (per eye). It’s just so insane.” Leda Raptis Kingston resident and Queen’s University Professor Emerita