Healthcare is a Right not a Choice
Whoever is elected on June 2 in Ontario will form the government and will then declare they have a mandate for the post-COVID recovery.
One thing we’ve seen throughout the pandemic is the value the healthcare system provides.
In addition to the people in Ontario who benefitted from all levels of healthcare throughout the pandemic, the companies they work for did too. Not only were many sectors of the economy permitted to keep working and supplied with a healthy workforce because of the healthcare system and those who work in it, but they were also given money from the public treasury in the form of wage subsidies.
With the post-COVID recovery on the horizon, we should be working out how companies who benefited from the public healthcare system should pay back what they received so it can be reinvested in the healthcare system that supported their profits. Recouping that value for society rather than exploring different ways to pay these companies still more is in the people’s interest.
Choosing between parties who present paying private companies as the only way forward, albeit in different ways, is not a choice. We need an entirely new direction for the economy so that it affirms the right to healthcare for all.