The Ontario Health Coalition Team
March 3, 2026
Alberta’s Danielle Smith government launches frontal assault on the Canada Health Act to end single tier public medicare & bring in U.S. private health care
The threat to the future of Public Medicare in Ontario and across the country is at an all-time high. After passing legislation to privatize hospitals, the United Conservative Party (UCP) — under the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta — passed “Bill 11” in December. The new law creates the legal framework to privatize health care, ending single-tier Public Medicare as a national project, enabling doctors to charge patients directly for health care and bill the public health system at the same time. Central to the plan, the law creates a market for private for-profit health insurance companies. Doctors choose which patients are charged and for what services. If patients can’t pay, they have to try to find a doctor who won’t charge (or wait/go without care). Bottom line: this legislation is the most direct and grievous attack on Public Medicare in Canada since its inception.
Learn more at the Ontario Health Coalition website
Doug Ford launches unprecedented privatization of public hospitals & allows private clinics to charge patients thousands for needed care
Closer to home, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford is privatizing hospitals, as well as long-term care, blood services, primary care, public health functions and more. In the last six months alone, the Ford government has announced almost $300 million for 61 new private clinics, a number of which are large scale facilities — essentially private hospitals. According to government projections, these clinics will redirect more than 1.2 million patients away from public hospitals for treatment. At the same time, most of Ontario’s public hospitals have been pushed into deficit by deliberate underfunding by the Ford government. They are being forced to cut staff and services (already stretched beyond what is possible). Ontario funds its hospitals at the lowest rate of any province in the country.
Learn more at the Ontario Health Coalition website
