They are privatizing core public hospital services including surgeries, diagnostic testing, nurses and health professionals.

There were more than 1,200 vital local public hospital service closures in 2023 and the staffing crisis is the worst ever. By December 2024, the number of emergency department closures had broken all records. Policy and budget choices by the Ford government have made it worse.

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The Ford government is allowing for-profit clinics to charge patients hundreds -- or even thousands -- of dollars for needed medical care, in violation of our Public Medicare laws.

Thousands of Ontarians are now being forced to pay out-of-pocket for access to health care.

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Learn why common misconceptions about privatization are false.

Read the facts about hospital privatization!

For 100 years, Ontario has built our system of local public hospitals that operate on a non-profit basis, in the public interest. Under the cover of the pandemic, the Ford government began to make plans to privatize Ontario’s public hospital services, including surgeries and diagnostics to private for-profit hospitals and clinics. Now, they are pouring millions into private for-profit clinics and hospitals, while imposing real-dollar cuts on our public hospitals.

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They are giving new 30-year licenses and expansions for thousands of people to the for-profit chain companies -- including the very worst ones who are being sued for negligence for the deaths of thousands of their residents in horrific conditions in the pandemic. For-profit long-term care homes spend 24% less per year on care for each resident than for non-profit homes. Profit is taken from public funding and residents’ fees. In fact, the for-profit chains report to theirshareholders that they are taking tens of millions of dollars out of the homes in profits every single month.

Read the facts about Long Term Care privatization!

Plundering Public Health...

FOR PROFIT

For more than a hundred years, Ontarians have fundraised & volunteered to build our local public hospitals’ services. Together we built a world class public hospital system we could be proud of.

Privatization couldn’t happen unless they dismantled our public hospitals: underfunded them, pushed them into crisis, and left them without the resources they need to provide for our communities… and that is exactly what the Ford government is doing.

The Ford government is paying double for surgeries at a private for-profit hospital.

After she left office with the Ford government, former Health Minister Christine Elliott became a lobbyist for a corporation that owns a for-profit hospital.

The Ford government increased funding to that hospital by 278%. It is paying them more than double the cost per surgery than our local public hospitals— paid by our taxes.

Real-dollar cuts for public hospitals, huge funding increases to for-profit clinics

In the most recent budget year, the Ford government held hospital funding in real dollar cuts (less than 1% increase while inflation was running at triple or more than rate) all year, throwing hospitals into deficit even while we had the worst staffing crisis and hospital closures we have ever seen. At the same time, they more than tripled the funding for private clinics (up 212%). Then, only in the last weeks at the very end of the budget year, did they announce a bump up in hospital funding. This enables the Ford government to say that they increased funding in the most recent budget year, but they did it too late to allow hospitals to hire staff, save services, stop closures and so on. In fact, in order to cover staffing needs, hospitals had to incur extra costs for overtime and private for-profit staffing agencies (that cost up to three times more per nursing hour) while receiving real dollar cuts.

Source: Government of Ontario, Budget Estimates 2023-24 & 2022-23.

Operating rooms in public hospitals across Ontario are sitting empty or underused—Meanwhile, the Ford government is increasing funding to private clinics by more than 200%.

Ontario funds its public hospitals at the lowest rate in Canada.

Every service that has been cut from our public hospitals has been privatized. It’s not a coincidence. It is the plan.

Instead of privatizing, Ontario should match the funding other provinces give and improve our hospital services under public ownership & control.

For-profit privatization is an urgent threat to our health care

It siphons funding & staff out of our local public hospitals, forcing them to close services.

It costs more. Private clinics charge OHIP and they charge patients thousands of dollars in user fees on top, even though such fees are illegal.

Privatization enriches corporations at the expense of the health and well being of regular Ontarians.

People Over Profit

The Ford government does what it can get away with. But public pressure forced them to backtrack on their Greenbelt land development scandal.

If we all take action, we can pressure them to stop privatizing our health care too.

The Ford government is dismantling public hospital services and privatizing them.

The threat to Public Medicare has never been more urgent

Will privatization improve our public health care system?