{"id":31085,"date":"2025-11-25T18:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T23:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=31085"},"modified":"2025-12-10T10:13:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:13:42","slug":"ontario-health-coalition-holds-stratford-protest-for-public-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/ontario-health-coalition-holds-stratford-protest-for-public-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Health Coalition holds Stratford protest for public health care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(November 24, 2025) By: Bill Atwood, Stratford Beacon Herald<\/p>\n<p><em>Around 10 people gathered in Stratford on Friday to speak out against health-care privatization.<\/em><\/p>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">While its numbers were small and its protest was short, the group of people who gathered on Ontario Street had one simple message for the provincial government: Don\u2019t mess with our health care.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">\n<div class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/div>\n<p>Roughly 10 people gathered in Stratford for about a half-hour on Friday to speak out against what they call the \u201cAmerican model\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">\n<div class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"featured-video__jw-strategy-title\">Recommended Videos<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">\n<div class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/div>\n<p>Led by Bryan Smith, a member of the coalition\u2019s Oxford County branch, said the group had come together Friday to speak out against the potential privatization of Ontario\u2019s beleaguered health-care system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery 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,\u201d said Smith, who also serves as chair of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">\n<div class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/div>\n<p>As an example of what can happen in a private health-care system, Smith pointed to Canada\u2019s southern neighbour, which is the only developed country without some sort of universal health-care system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPer capita, Americans pay far more than we pay for health care,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Smith pointed to former Dawson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a (successful) actor can\u2019t 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 \u2013 no insurance of any kind \u2013 which means the equivalent to Canada\u2019s population is not covered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--story\">\n<div class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/div>\n<p>Another rally participant, Sheila Clarke, knows that type of health-care system from first-hand experience, having grown up in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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\u2019t even work for them,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I never want it to come here. . . . We don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the challenges facing Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe 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 . . .\u00a0 if a doctor, for instance, gets sick that doesn\u2019t close the ward because there\u2019s nobody to care for the people in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Click here for the original article<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(November 24, 2025) By: Bill Atwood, Stratford Beacon Herald Around 10 people gathered in Stratford on Friday to speak out against health-care privatization. While its numbers were small and its protest was short, the group of people who gathered on Ontario Street had one simple message for the provincial government: Don\u2019t mess with our health [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ontario Health Coalition holds Stratford protest for public health care - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(November 24, 2025) By: Bill Atwood, Stratford Beacon Herald Around 10 people gathered in Stratford on Friday to speak out against health-care\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/ontario-health-coalition-holds-stratford-protest-for-public-health-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ontario Health Coalition holds Stratford protest for public health care - 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