Members of OPSEU's Hospital Professional Division (HPD) are on Parliament Hill this week to deliver a strong message to the Trudeau government: restore health care funding and enforce national standards that uphold public medicare!
In conjunction with the Canadian Health Coalition, HPD members are in Ottawa to meet with senior government officials and Members of Parliament. They are there to express concerns about changes to the federal funding formula that will see provinces lose billions of health care dollars.
Members of the HPD have issued a call for a renegotiated 10-year health accord. The health accord offers an opportunity to discuss how to improve care across the country, recommit to the principles of the Canada Health Act, and expand the public system.
OPSEU is calling for:
- Negotiation of a 10-year health accord with a six per cent escalator to help fund current priorities, including a national pharmacare program, a national home and community care strategy, and a mental health care strategy.
- Enforcement of national standards to eliminate user fees for patients in private clinics and to expand capacity in the public health care system.
- Restoration of federal cash transfers to at least 25 per cent of funding for medicare and a commitment by the federal government to 50 per cent of the costs of any new program.
- Development of a health human resources strategy that plans for a changing workforce, including hospital professions.
“We need a national health accord to ensure there is consistent delivery of health care services for all Canadians, regardless of where you live or visit in this country,” said HPD Chair Sara Labelle. “Access to health care should be based on need, not the size of your wallet. OPSEU has always believed in affordable, universal, accessible health care for all. We push for this in Ontario, and it’s time the federal government stepped up to enforce these principles across the country.”
"Privatization of health care is a huge problem across the country,” said Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of OPSEU. “Medicare is under attack in B.C., Saskatchewan is running a ‘buy one, get one’ privatization scheme for MRIs, and in Ontario, private clinics are charging patients out-of-pocket user fees for a host of services and procedures. Without a national strategy that includes robust federal funding, the federal government has little leverage to enforce national standards. This is not only contrary to the principles of the Canada Health Act – it’s dangerous.”