Roughly 10 people gathered in Stratford for about a half-hour on Friday to speak out against what they call the “American model” of health care. The event was one of a series of rallies that the advocacy group, the Ontario Health Coalition, has been hosting across the province this fall to raise awareness about health-care privatization.

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Led by Bryan Smith, a member of the coalition’s Oxford County branch, said the group had come together Friday to speak out against the potential privatization of Ontario’s beleaguered health-care system.

“Every time you privatize something, profit has to come out of it, which increases the expense and reduces the care that people get as a result,” said Smith, who also serves as chair of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice.

As an example of what can happen in a private health-care system, Smith pointed to Canada’s southern neighbour, which is the only developed country without some sort of universal health-care system.

“Per capita, Americans pay far more than we pay for health care,” Smith said.

Smith pointed to former Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek, who recently announced his second auction of show memorabilia to help pay for his Stage 3 colon cancer treatment.

“If a (successful) actor can’t afford it, how does an average citizen afford it in the (U.S.)? In the United States, 10 per cent of their population has no health care at all – no insurance of any kind – which means the equivalent to Canada’s population is not covered,” he said.

Another rally participant, Sheila Clarke, knows that type of health-care system from first-hand experience, having grown up in Chicago.

“I know what a health cost will mean to a family. In many cases, it actually means they lose their home because the health conglomerates say which doctors they can go to, which medical procedures are available to them and, in some cases, it doesn’t even work for them,” Clarke said.

“So I never want it to come here. . . . We don’t want the American model. Anything that is privatized is for-profit, and profit means you cut corners to make more money, and we cannot afford that in our country.”

When asked about the challenges facing Canada’s health-care system, such as the nearby Clinton Public Hospital temporarily closing its emergency room several times in recent years, Smith said many of these problems involve staffing issues.

“We need to make it a place that people want to go and live in the community. But secondly, we need to train enough (health-care staff) so . . .  if a doctor, for instance, gets sick that doesn’t close the ward because there’s nobody to care for the people in it,” he said.

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