Health Care Campaign Questions

“Will you support a ban on all for-profit clinics?”
Private clinics typically charge 10 to 15 per cent more than the public sector for procedures in order to fund administration costs and shareholder profits. At the same time, these clinics draw doctors and other health care professionals away from the public system, which already faces shortages. The result? Longer wait times in the public system for those who can’t afford to pay high enrolment and annual fees, or inflated surgical costs.

“What will your party do to enforce the Canada Health Act?”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to enforce the Canada Health Act during the 2006 federal election, but has now spoken out in favour of for-profit health care delivery.

Provinces continue to contribute to the dismantling of medicare by allowing for-profit private clinics and services that let people who have money pay for health care. The latest report to Parliament on the status of the Canada Health Act says that the provinces are committing serious breeches to the five principles of medicare by allowing direct charges to patients, queue-jumping and the establishment of private clinics.

In fact, there were even provinces that did not submit information as required by law for the preparation of the report to Parliament. A recent article in The Globe and Mail revealed that only one province, British Columbia, was fined last year for violating Canada's Health Act after private surgical clinics there charged user fees to patients.