I was at a protest in Almonte last Tuesday morning. Like all the protests I’ve ever been part of, it was a sociable occasion. Timmy’s coffee and muffins. Friends greeting each other. A muted buzz of conversation, while the microphone is set up and a small cluster of people grows into a crowd. There weren’t many people there who weren’t intimately acquainted with the growing incursion of privatization into our public healthcare system. There were very few of us from ‘the public at large’. That’s why I am writing to tell you about the Trojan Horse and the need to protest. We all need to know what’s happening.
The story of the Trojan horse, a gift given to Troy by Agamemnon’s armies, is, no doubt, familiar to you . The Trojans pull the wondrous gift inside the city’s walls, bringing their enemy through their own defenses, hidden in the hollow horse. The Trojan horse was Troy’s undoing. Yesterday’s protesters (members of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Health Coalition) want us to recognize current healthcare policy as a Trojan Horse. Private for-profit clinics and paid access to diagnostic tools have been disguised as solutions to long wait times and a healthcare system under strain. Once inside the system, privatization erodes access to interventions like knee and cataract surgeries and bleeds resources from our public healthcare system.
You can find numbers to support these claims elsewhere (ochu.on.ca ontariohealthcoalition.ca) so I want to offer you two more personal examples of the creeping erosion of care. As part of preparing for cataract surgery in the spring of 2019 my eyes were measured. Most of the appointment was covered by OHIP. The “extra” measurements taken so that my doctor could sell me up-graded lenses were not. I was not told that the specialized measurements were not required, nor that they would be “extra” billed. I was simply asked for $150.00 along with my OHIP card when my appointment was over. My family doctor recently moved her practice into a newly built facility. I was asked to put my credit card number on file to make paying fees for prescription renewals and missed appointments more convenient. I imagine everyone has bumped up against this colder, harder care by now.
On the radio, as I drove away from the protest, they were talking about the $200 cheque we will all receive from the Conservative government in the New Year. Those cheques represent billions of dollars of public money. I think it would be better spent investing in universal public healthcare. My portion is going to the Ontario Health Coalition. Let’s push the Trojan Horse outside our city walls!
Submitted by Lyndal Neelin
McDonalds Corners
