Two-tier health care, queue-jumping and Kings Health Centre

Ontario NDP health critic Frances Lankin responds to Larry Solway's commentary

By Frances Lankin

  First of all, it was the Ministry of Health OHIP fraud squad that has gone in and joined investigation of investor fraud the police are undertaking. Our question to the minister was to ask her to share whatever information she had with the public as to whether investor fraud also included OHIP fraud. That's separate from the issue of two-tier health. Bur remember, we're not the ones that sent in the fraud squad.
  On the subject of two-tier health care, because of the way Kings Health Centre is structured as a private clinic, I can't confirm this. But what has been alleged, but we've been told Kings Health Centre - not the doctors involved - signed contracts with large corporations to provide a range of health services to employees, some services OHIP-based and OHIP-billed provided by doctors at Kings, some outside OHIP that may be covered by the corporation's health insurance plan and employee benefits.
  In that context, we've been told by two sources that if an employee of that company shows up at Kings Health Centre and in course of treatment needs a service provided by an OHIP doctor, that they will be seen in timely fashion that day. That brings up the element of queue jumping.
  On the face of it, it sounds worrisome. We can't get copies of the contract, but the minister of health can. This question isn't raised on a whim. The allegation has been confirmed with two sources but we can't get it on paper. I asked the minister to investigate that, but she hid behind the ongoing fraud investigation.
  I think Kings Health Centre is a legitimate example of the privatization of health care. Look at its history. In the early 90s before they opened their doors their prospectus alleged they had the first and only license to be a for-profit hospital in Ontario. The Rae government found out and told them it wouldn't be tolerated. We stepped in and put a stop to it. But we know where this group of people were headed and what they wanted to accomplish. They were in a sense in waiting for the right government, the right terms, the right commitments.
  There are those in this country with a political agenda to allow for private, for-profit hospitals, to allow Kings Health Centre to make that next step. We're not casting aspersions on individual doctors at the centre. We're talking about the principals behind the centre, what they were waiting to grow that clinic into, and the legitimate concerns about the potential for privatization and queue-jumping.
  Larry's caution about not exaggerating examples is always well taken. We didn't pick these things out of thin air. There was the fraud squad, earlier prospectus, verbal evidence from two sources. This is not a hypothetical debate taking place in federal election. It's a very concrete debate with two sides. On one side are proponents of the private delivery of health care . There are people waiting to move in on that territory, either by direct action or by inaction, the way the Liberals have turned a blind eye to this.

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