Doug Ford starts privatizing health care

[Anbarandy]

I'll tell you what. That $2billion in unspent/hoarded federal pandemic aid transferred to Thug that was to be directed towards the HealthCare System would certainly help in alleviating the current Thug induced healthcare crisis.

The Thug induced healthcare crisis.

 

[krealtarron]

Same as happens in the education system. Workers will leave for better pay and conditions, including the more experienced ones, leaving the public system with the has-beens and never- weres. Plus the provincial funding would follow.

But the public health care system is simply that it is underwritten by a private insurance firm, paid for by the province. So OHIP essentially is private health care with public health insurance - thats all it is. So am unsure that workers will just leave for better pay. Also even today you can go to a hospital and get treatment and pay in cash if you dont have OHIP. So we already have private healthcare.

One thing is true that we need to encourage more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to immigrate. Even in the current landscape the shortage is a problem.

 

[jalimon]

We have such a 2 tier system in Quebec for many years now. Did not improve public system but did not made it worst.

Physician are still required to give hours in public system. Nurse are mostly nurses that would have never go back to public system anyway.

Hospitals actually sends many patients for non threatening injuries to have their surgery in those private clinics and pay the bill. It cost less to society to do that as it makes public staff more available.

And for those who can pay… I know someone who paid 30k for double hip replacement. Third of the US price. He saved a year of waiting and relieved the pain he was suffering.

 

[Anbarandy]

One thing is true that we need to encourage more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to immigrate. Even in the current landscape the shortage is a problem.

Why?

Isn't the 1% wage increase per year, now going on for years and years more than enough to retain nurses in our glorious Ontario Healthcare System.

Frontline heroes deserve frontline wage increases and Thug who is the self-proclaimed frontline heroes biggest champion says 1% is these frontline heroes reward.

 

[Hedley Lamar]

I'm not opposed to two tiered healthcare. It just seems to be more advantageous to the wealthy, but on the other hand, it would reach out to more employment needs to healthcare providers and bring them back from other markets.

 

[Anbarandy]

I'm not opposed to two tiered healthcare. It just seems to be more advantageous to the wealthy, but on the other hand, it would reach out to more employment needs to healthcare providers and bring them back from other markets.

So would actually employing the $2billion Thug hoarded from the federal transfer of pandemic aid for Ontario's Healthcare system during the pandemic to "people up" the now "people way down" healthcare system.

 

[Hedley Lamar]

So would actually employing the $2billion Thug hoarded from the federal transfer of pandemic aid for Ontario's Healthcare system during the pandemic to "people up" the now "people way down" healthcare system.

I don't know tbh. Ford is an idiot but someone(s) keep voting for him and putting him in power.

 

[Insidious Von]

That's a woman my good man

When things go wrong it's never the Provinces fault, lock him up, lock him up....

 

[bazokajoe]

I'll wait for the announcement before I pass judgement.
If doing procedures like cataracts, knee & hip replacements are done at private clinics for the same price as what a hospital charges, then who cares. Hospitals are pissed because they might lose out on that cash.
So, wait for the announcement.

 

[Frankfooter]

Why would it drain money from the public system ?

Because money that would go towards family doctors and hospitals will now also be spread to cover fees from private care services.
You think Ford would just add more money to pay for those private hernia surgeries?

Unless those are fully private and Ford says you won't need your credit card, just OHIP.
Of course he could be lying again.

 

[Anbarandy]

Because money that would go towards family doctors and hospitals will now also be spread to cover fees from private care services.
You think Ford would just add more money to pay for those private hernia surgeries?

Unless those are fully private and Ford says you won't need your credit card, just OHIP.
Of course he could be lying again.

Thug isn't gong to carve out chunks of the HealthCare System to feed his private healthcare con$tituents/donors just about as much as he didn't carve out chunks of the greenbelt to feed his developer puppet masters.

 

[Valcazar]

A two tier system would mean that money would be drained from the public system, more sick poor people, more waits for people who can't afford it and the start of american style health care issues up here.
It'll mean more health insurance deductions from pay checks so less money going into your pocket.

A two-tier system doesn't have to do that.
Most of the best systems in the world are two-tiered.
But they have severe controls and structures in place to make it not spin into the kind of problem you are talking about.

The people who push two-tier in Canada almost always want something more like the American system and intend two-tier as a way to undercut the public system and ditch it.
This is the problem. There is room for a real discussion of a different structure in Canada but the people most pushing for it aren't talking in good faith, which means people who want good access and treatment mostly just refuse to have the discussion at all because (quite rationally) they view it as opening the door for people who want to wreck the system, not improve it.

 

[Valcazar]

But the public health care system is simply that it is underwritten by a private insurance firm, paid for by the province. So OHIP essentially is private health care with public health insurance - thats all it is. So am unsure that workers will just leave for better pay. Also even today you can go to a hospital and get treatment and pay in cash if you dont have OHIP. So we already have private healthcare.

One thing is true that we need to encourage more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to immigrate. Even in the current landscape the shortage is a problem.

People mix up single payer, private health care, universal access, universal coverage, etc. all the time.

It makes it difficult to tease these things out.

The simplest way to drain the money out is to simply allow for profit medical companies to refuse to take patients who are covered by the public insurance.
You get richer, healthier people in the private insurance pile, which means your profits as an HCP go up.
The secret to making money as an insurer is to cull the people you have in your system to the ones who cost the least and keep paying you but don't use resources.

 

[danmand]

I personally support a 2 tier system. Specialist wait times are nuts and the quality of health care in Canada is absurd compared to the US.

So a 2 tier system would ensure quick access for people who are willing to pay and OHIP would stay for everyone. I also think OHIP should be expanded to include dental coverage.

But of course we need more doctors. Maybe incentivize doctors to immigrate.

On average, health care is better in Canada than in USA. Ford is on purpose destroying OHIP.

We do have a two tier health care system. I go to USA for urgent care.

 

[Y_Diner]

This was Doug’s plan, wet dream all along.
Privatize everything. And keep blaming Ottawa for not sending him enough $.
Doug has always been profit first and people last.
Those who voted him in, again and are now upset to bad and great job!
Vote for him again in a few years.
What will he and his cronies privatize next?
Public education is my guess, and / or have all the kids learn remotely to cut costs, and fatten his pockets.

 

[basketcase]

There was a report in the news about private surgeries where the 'scam' part was that patients were required to stay for several days 'rehab' after surgery which was not covered by ohip.

Considering the well reported connections between Ford and his LTC company buddies and the bullshit with the greenbelt, it's very likely that there's some backroom dealing going on.

 

[bver_hunter]

Currently, there are Private Healthcare Clinics in Ontario that cater to the Corporations who are willing to shell out the big bucks for the CEOs and upper management.
All tests including MRIs, CT Scans, Ultrasounds and even procedures like Colonoscopy are offered at such Clinics. So these upper management can get all their preferential tests and results with no wait times!! That is why there is a shortage of staff in the Hospitals that are attracted to such clinics that offer better pay and other perks.

Dougie Boy will only make it worse by expanding and privatizing such healthcare to hospitals that are severely short staffed. Countries like the UK that have these two tier systems are even more impacted, and that is why the staff in public Healthcare are going on strike as in the past Conservative PMs such as Boris Johnson and now the present PM Rishi Sunak do not believe in offering fair wages to these stressed out workers in Hospitals and other Medical Institutions. Dougie Boy seems to have the same vision towards Healthcare Staff!!

 

[Darts]

Public education is my guess, and / or have all the kids learn remotely to cut costs, and fatten his pockets.

Public education is a mess. Teachers always going on strike. Teachers already get great salaries, benefits and pensions.

 

[bver_hunter]

Also, Canada has to pay big salaries to Healthcare Doctors and Specialists as we are in very close proximity to the USA. Such staff are paid astronomical salaries in the USA, funded by Privatized Healthcare that are draining the earnings of citizens that do not have private healthcare funded by the big Corporations. Those left behind in this manner have to rely on charitable institutions with limited resources to deal with the intensity of such patients. By Law every victim that needs to have urgent care and are transferred by ambulances to hospitals that are privately run, will then have to be treated in these hospitals. Now if the patient does not have the private healthcare or Affordable Healthcare then he could be on hook for a huge bill. If he is homeless the routine is to get him out of the private hospital after the minimal treatment and then dumped at the doorstep of those charitable institutions. This can only occur in the USA where Healthcare is not a given basic right!!

 

[Y_Diner]

Public education is a mess. Teachers always going on strike. Teachers already get great salaries, benefits and pensions.

They are underpaid and have to pay for a lot of their school supplies out of their own pocket.
You should ask DB #1 S. Lecce if he’d consider trimming his over grossed salary and expenses paid by tax payers to help.
Same with Ford.

Bottom line, to build a productive, stable and upwardly mobile society, full, and universal , healthcare and education should be provided, no questions asked. Many disagree because they are brainwashed, apathetic towards anyone but themselves and outside of their circle, are selfish, and driven by greed.