In Ontario it’s a lottery. Maybe you get a doctor, maybe you don’t! Maybe they dismiss your symptoms for years, maybe you get referral for surgery that restores your quality of life!
The title is misleading. When I moved from Ontario to BC, I also had to wait the 2 months past your arrival month for healthcare to kick in. Its the same for everyone applying for MSP.
I’m all for public health care for everyone in this country and I do everything I can to support and fight for it.
But we have to stop thinking of it as a ‘right’ … it’s a privilege that can be taken away by those in power and those with money … and given enough time and resources, they could have their way and remove this ‘right’ of ours.
We have to stop believing in this magical thing that can’t be touched called ‘a right’ … sure it sounds like a great idea but those ‘rights’ can be removed, ignored, sidelined or bypassed if enough money is used.
We have to actively keep fighting for these so called ‘right to healthcare’ … because the for-profit private health care supporters and owners are constantly fighting everyone else to break it all down.
If we don’t fight back now … we won’t be able to fight back later
The charter of human rights describes access to health care as a right, not its monetary value.
As long as we keep believing the lie that an immigrant “stole your health care”, we will never win the battle against the rich and powerful.
That’s the thing … no matter how much language, documents or statements anyone can make … money, wealth and power will always trump those things. A rich man or a wealthy corporation can spend billions on billions year after year just chiseling away at health services, nursing staff, available doctors, hospital administrations, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, etc, etc and just wearing down all those things to the point where government and society will just give in and allow private health care to first step in … then take full control.
Private health care won’t arrive with a big loud marching band announcing their takeover … it will arrive like a cancer that first infected your skin, then it was left untreated for many years until your left with tumours everywhere and those were also left untreated and eventually the patient is diagnosed with terminal cancer and everyone just sits around wondering how all that happened.
I’m aware of all that.
What I was alluding to was your suggestion that we treat health care as a privilege.
This is backwards; we must insist that it is a right and hold our government accountable. Life and liberty are guaranteed to all in the Canadian Charter of Human rights. Those whose human rights are violated can take the issue to the supreme court of Canada.
As soon as we start giving in to those with wealth and power, they’ve won.
