{"id":6047,"date":"2018-02-09T15:45:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T20:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?page_id=6047"},"modified":"2019-02-13T15:06:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T20:06:10","slug":"open-letter-to-health-ministers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/open-letter-to-health-ministers\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to Health Ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to see the full list of organizations that have signed on.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>Open Letter to Health Ministers Across Canada
\nto Take Action to Protect Public Health Care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear:\u00a0 Minister of Health, Canada
\nMinister of Health, Newfoundland
\nMinister of Health & Wellness, Nova Scotia
\nMinister of Health & Wellness, PEI
\nMinister of Health, New Brunswick
\nMinister of Health & Social Services, Quebec
\nMinister of Health & Long-Term Care, Ontario
\nMinister of Health, Seniors and Active Living, Manitoba
\nMinister of Health, Saskatchewan
\nMinister of Health, Alberta
\nMinister of Health, British Columbia
\nMinister of Health & Social Services, Northwest Territories
\nMinister of Health, Nunavut
\nMinister of Health & Social Services, Yukon<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s universal public health care enjoys the overwhelming support of Canadians. As such, we expect that our governments will safeguard it as a vital priority. Under the Canada Health Act, provinces and territories are required to protect patients against unlawful user charges and extra billing. The federal government is obligated to uphold the Canada Health Act and has the power to penalize provinces that fail to comply with the law. Both levels of government also have an obligation to Canadians to engage in sound planning processes to measure and meet our communities\u2019 needs for medical care. The principles of the Canada Health Act protect Canadians, providing us with equal access to care based on need without financial hardship.<\/p>\n

As organizations representing more than [a million]* people in Canada, we are gravely concerned about the threat posed to public health care by private clinics that are charging user fees to patients. These user fees compromise access to needed health care, eroding the equity of the health system. Often they are levied on patients in a manipulative way, damaging the trust between patients and health providers and violating medical ethics. They contravene Canadian laws.<\/p>\n

A recent study, conducted by the Ontario Health Coalition and co-sponsored by Health Coalitions across Canada, was featured in an investigative report by the Globe and Mail. In these reports, researchers found a significant majority of the clinics — 88 private clinics in 6 provinces across Canada — that are charging patients extra user fees for medically necessary services. Patients described these medical fees, which amounted to hundreds or even thousands of dollars, as \u201ca shock\u201d and \u201ca hardship\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the last decade, user fees have escalated. Today, private clinics are charging patients illegal fees of up to five-times or more the cost of the same procedure in the public system. In addition, private clinic owner\/operators are pushing a burgeoning array of medically unnecessary tests and procedures on patients for extra money. The patients are often elderly and on fixed incomes, have no idea how to complain, do not realize their medicare rights, and are afraid to say no.<\/p>\n

Located exclusively in Canada\u2019s largest urban centres, \u201cboutique\u201d physician clinics have sprung up, selling memberships and executive care packages for the well-heeled that run up to thousands of dollars per year. In some cases, doctors are selling appointments by 15- minute increment to those who can pay, with higher prices for emergencies. Private cataract surgery clinics are routinely charging seniors on fixed incomes $100 per eye or more for extra eye measurement tests, and direct charges to patients for eye surgery often amount to $1,500 – $2,000 or more. Private diagnostic clinics selling MRIs flagrantly charge patients up to a thousand dollars for a basic scan, and additional body parts are extra. In the public system, the same scan costs about a quarter of that price. Private colonoscopy and endoscopy clinics are charging \u201cblock fees\u201d or administrative fees. Private orthopedic surgeries run into the tens of thousands of dollars. New technologies are being exploited as means to bring in new user fees.<\/p>\n

As a result of health care user fees, patients describe running short on rent, using a significant amount of their pension, forgoing groceries, and finding themselves unable to buy needed items for their families. This is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Health Coalitions and public-interest advocates across Canada are warning that challenges to public health care posed by private clinics have come to a head, and unless governments act to protect patients, public health care is at risk.<\/p>\n

Canadians share a deeply held set of values that hold that access to health care should be based on need, not wealth; that health care is about equity and compassion, not greed and profiteering. You, as Ministers of Health across our country have the power to protect the core tenets of Canada\u2019s public health care system.<\/p>\n

Our organizations have signed onto this open letter to ask you, respectfully, to take urgent action to uphold Public Medicare for all, including the following:<\/p>\n

1. Recommit to the Canada Health Act and the values of equity and compassion upon which it is based. Our governments must uphold the Canada Health Act, stop illegal user-fees for patients. Our federal government must impose penalties on provinces that fail to protect their residents.
\n2. Stop the privatization of public and non-profit hospital services. Capacity must be built in our public hospitals, and services that have been cut from public hospitals must be restored.
\n3. Engage in sound planning to build capacity in public hospitals and across the care continuum, to reduce wait lists and to act to improve equity and access.
\n4. Reverse funding cuts imposed in the recent bilateral funding deals with provinces and territories, and provide a Canada Health Transfer of at least 5.2% as recommended by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Conference Board of Canada, the Ontario Accountability Office, Health Coalitions and organizations across Canada.
\n5. Protect public health care from international trade agreements through a general carve out for all health care services.<\/p>\n

Signed:<\/p>\n

Natalie Mehra\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Pauline Wolsford, RN
\nExecutive Director\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Chair
\nOntario Health Coalition\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Canadian Health Coalition<\/p>\n

Craig Yeo
\nAlternatives North<\/p>\n

Edith MacHattie, Ed Staples, Adrienne Yeung
\nCo-Chairs
\nB.C. Health Coalition<\/p>\n

Jacques Benoit
\nCoalition solidarit\u00e9 sant\u00e9<\/p>\n

Sandra Azocar
\nExecutive Director
\nFriends of Medicare (Alta)<\/p>\n

Brianne Goertzen
\nProvincial Director
\nManitoba Health Coalition<\/p>\n

Nancy Arseneau
\nCo-chair
\nNew Brunswick Health Coalition<\/p>\n

Mary Clark
\nChair
\nHealth Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador<\/p>\n

Chris Parsons
\nProvincial Coordinator
\nNova Scotia Health Coalition<\/p>\n

Mary Boyd
\nChair
\nP.E.I Health Coalition<\/p>\n

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