More than 40 Communities Across Canada Sound the Alarm as Canadas 10-Year Health Accord Expires Hundreds took to the streets with alarm clocks and noisemakers to issue a wake up call in a bid to raise awareness among Canadians as the 10-Year Health Accord between the federal government and the provinces expired today. Events were held by volunteers from Thunder Bay to Ottawa, Cornwall to Niagara, and in more than 17 cities across Ontario. They joined events in more than 40 communities across Canada organized by provincial health coalitions and the Canadian Health Coalition. The Harper Conservative government is doing everything it thinks it can get away with to undermine Public Medicare in Canada, said Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra. They plan to curtail federal funding for health care to the provinces by $36 billion over the next decade, and over the next six years, Ontario will be hardest hit with a cut of more than $8 billion. She noted that in recent months the federal government has wiped out the Health Council of Canada, cut veterans health and refugee health services, and is doing nothing to uphold the Canada Health Act to protect Canadians against growing user fees in private clinics. She warned that the failure to renegotiate a Health Accord means that the early steps towards the creation of a national home care plan and public drug coverage, stalled for the duration of the Harper governments term in office, are now more uncertain than ever. The consequence for patients is more user-pay health care. It is longer wait times, shrinking public health care coverage and privatization, she warned. The coalition plans to ramp up pressure on the federal government as the federal election gets closer to stop the cuts and win improvements to protect Public Medicare for the future.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 02:12:07 +0000
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