Advocates file complaints on behalf of 50 patients charged user fees at private clinics in Ontario
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Advocates file formal complaints on behalf of 50 patients charged user fees at private clinics in Ontario
“Without question, patients – many of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes – are being exploited. They are being charged hundreds or even thousands of dollars, particularly when they go to private clinics for cataract surgeries,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition in a media release on June 17, 2025.
“Patients are using up their entire savings, their grocery money, and some have even had to go back to work long after retirement, in order to pay for their surgeries. This should never happen in Canada. We are demanding that the provincial government finally take action to stop the private clinics and that the federal government enforce the Canada Health Act in Ontario where the Ford government is violating it.”
Maureen Munro from London was informed that she had macular degeneration and needed eye surgery urgently or she would lose her vision. She was told that she would have to pay or face two year wait lists (which was not true). She said, “I was informed the cost to receive the surgery would be almost $7,000. Being as I live alone, I did not want to have macular degeneration, nor lose my quality of life. Therefore, I paid the $7,000 in 2022. Being a senior on a fixed income, I am still trying to catch up with bills from this surgery.”
Read more on the Ontario Health Coalition website.
Nunavut and NWT health ministers want “viable funding” for the federal Non-Insured Health Benefits program
“We’ve had to take a real serious look at what handing the program back to Indigenous Services would mean,” said Nunavut Health Minister John Main to The Hill Times, June 16, 2025. He added that he is considering this option in light of the federal government’s “pattern of underfunding.”
Tuberculosis a public health emergency, say Nunavik mayors
“These statistics are a direct reflection of colonial systemic racism that continues to dictate health policy and resource allocation in Quebec. . . Inuit in Nunavik are not treated as equal citizens under Quebec’s health system,” said Nunavik mayors in a letter to Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé, published by CBC, June 9, 2025
SEIU Healthcare Training Centre gets federal funding to support internationally educated nurses
“Today’s investment to support internationally educated nurses in becoming fully licensed and working to their full potential is proof of what’s possible when unions and governments collaborate to create meaningful solutions. With our IEN Career Pathway Program, SEIU is not only helping IENs thrive, we’re strengthening Canada’s healthcare system with a more inclusive and skilled workforce,” said Tyler Downey, President of SEIU Healthcare in a news release, June 17, 2025
“Measles is the canary in the coalmine”: pediatric infectious diseases specialist
“To some extent measles is the canary in the coalmine . . . When the immunization rates go down and you have a lot of unprotected people in the communities, usually the first vaccine-preventable disease to come back is measles,” said Dr. Cora Constantinescu, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary to CBC, June 16, 2025
Paying for COVID shots in Alberta is “dangerous”
“It’s dangerous, it’s callous, it’s anti-science and it’s anti-public health,” said Opposition NDP Critic Sarah Hoffman in a statement about Albertans paying for a COVID-19 vaccine in a story by Winnipeg Free Press, June 14, 2025.
“The government’s claim that this is being done to save money and recover costs makes no sense from a moral or logical perspective… It is absolutely irresponsible to force health-care workers in both public and private workplaces to place orders in August and pay to receive a vaccine that is an essential component of workplace health and safety,” said Heather Smith, president of United Nurses of Alberta, to Global News, June 16, 2025
“[Free COVID-19 vacinnes] is how we protect patients, reduce hospitalizations, and keep our health system strong,” added Leanne Alfaro, vice-president of Health Sciences Association of Alberta, representing 30,000 health-care workers.
