“We are going to lose public medicare if we don’t ramp up our fight back.”
A ‘Code RED’ Message from the Ontario Health Coalition, a citizens organization dedicated to protecting and preserving quality public health care in Ontario
Posted September 10th, 2025
When they privatized cataract surgeries, Ford appeared all over TV promising that people would never pay with their credit card, only their OHIP card. That was a lie. All over Ontario, seniors are now routinely charged thousands of dollars in the private for-profit eye surgery clinics.
We heard from an 80-year old woman who was told she had to make a down payment of $1,500 followed by almost $11,000 for her surgery. We heard from a 71-year old who had to come out of retirement to work to pay for his surgery.
We heard from Maureen, a widow whose eyesight was failing, who was charged almost $7,000 for her eye surgery. She had to take out a loan. Everywhere I go, every event at which I make a speech, people come up to me and tell me about how their mother or father was charged thousands for their cataract surgery.
Now, Ford wants to expand his privatization plan to orthopedic surgeries — hips and knees, shoulders and so on — as well as MRIs, CTs and other diagnostics and surgeries. Just imagine the tens of thousands of dollars they are going to charge patients.
The hardship and suffering caused by this privatization is exactly what public medicare was set up to stop.
We have made formal complaints, held press conferences with the patients who have been extra-billed illegally, written letters, asked for meetings with the Minister and Premier. It isn’t that they don’t know this is happening. They are pretending it isn’t and ignoring it, as long as they are able to do so.
We are going to lose public medicare if we don’t ramp up our fight back.
Please pay attention and spread the word. It matters.
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Natalie Mehra, Executive Director
We are proud of the difference we make and we hope you are too. This work is only made possible by people who care like you. Please do become a member or donate. It matters!
If you can, please CLICK HERE <http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/donate-now/> to donate or become a member.
To learn more about the Ontario Health Coalition, click on – https://www.OntarioHealthCoalition.ca/ >
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