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Health care rally planned for Tuesday
Posted: June 15, 2017
(June 1, 2017)
By: Valerie MacDonald, Northumberland Today
A campaign travelling through Northumberland to warn of the potential privatization of health care comes to Cobourg June 6 at the corner of Elgin and Strathy Road, near Northumberland Mall.
The Ontario Health Coalition (of which Northumberland is a member) and the Hamilton Health Coalition are touring a giant teddy bear through 20 towns under the slogan, “We can’t bear to lose Medicare.”
In addition to coalition members, patients and residents, health-care providers and others are asked to attend the 7 p.m. rally, according to Northumberland Health Coalition co-chair Linda MacKenzie Nicholas.
“Canada’s public health-care system is under threat by private profit-seeking clinics that want to take services out of our local public hospitals,” Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra said in a press release.
“These private clinics bill OHIP for tests and surgeries and bill patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars as well.
“User fees for medically-needed hospital and physician care are unlawful under the Canada Health Act, which requires that health care be publicly funded and equitable for all Canadians.
“We are drawing attention to this, explaining to patients their rights, and pushing back against the takeover of non-profit and public hospitals by private for-profit corporations.”
Discussion will take place at the rally, and leaflets will be handed out.
