Plans by a Toronto health clinic to allow quick access to medical expertise and more time with doctors for a fee is a violation of the Canada Health Act, according to the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC).
According to a legal opinion prepared for the OHC by a Toronto law firm, doctors who accept fees for "queue jumping" and patients who pay them could be fined as much as $10,000. The planned clinics, run by Vancouver-based Copeman Healthcare Inc., will charge patients a $3,500 registration fee.
In a letter to Health Minister George Smitherman, the OHC called on the Ontario government to "curb the growth of boutique medicine and private for-profit clinics." According to the OHC -- which represents over 400 organizations including womens' groups, trade unions and antipoverty groups -- the government has the power to close loopholes, but has not.
According to a Canadian Press report, Smitherman has warned Copeman Healthcare that it could be fined, saying that "any attempt to extricate from an Ontarian a certain financial sum in advance of the provision of a medically insured service is not on." He did not comment on the request to "close loopholes".
» Canadian Press: Proposed private health clinics violate law
» Official Site: Ontario Health Coalition
Independent newspapers such as The Dominion are vital if democracy and true citizenship are to be saved in this age of awful concentration of corporate medias bent on formatting our opinion to serve the powerful interests which control such media. We as Haitians are especially grateful to independent media for having helped disentangle the web of lies in which the corporate media are still trying to smother our struggle for freedom and self-determination.