A Tory campaign promise to cover private clinic surgeries with public money has stirred passionate debate in Ontario.
Dr. Douglas Mark, president of the Coalition of Family Physicians, said Canadians should look beyond the U.S. for models of private health care.
"In France, it is my understanding that if you have a terribly arthritic hip, you can go to either the public or the private sector and have that operation done in two weeks time," Mark said.
The public health system alone can't support a growing and aging population and Ontario should be looking at countries that have a mix of private and public health care, he said.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory has promised to offer public funding to cover surgeries at private clinics if he is elected premier on Oct. 10.
On the opposite side of the debate is the Ontario Health Coalition, a group that advocates for public health care.
Director Natalie Mehra argues that private clinics would do nothing to shorten waiting lists, since they would lure staff away from the public system.
"Then you've got worse shortages in your local non-profit hospitals," she said.
Ruthie Zaionz sees the debate from a patient's perspective.
She endured three agonizing years popping the painkiller codeine as she waited for knee surgery in Ontario's public system.
She couldn't climb stairs in her home and said other simple tasks were excruciating.
"Getting up from a chair, sitting down in a chair — you think that every muscle below your knees is being torn out," she recalled.
Still she's not sure if private clinics are the way to go for the province.
But she admits she would have been ready to go to a private clinic in Quebec to have her surgery if she had to wait any longer.
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District Profiles
More Ontario Votes Headlines »
- McGuinty wins massive majority, Tory loses seat
- Dalton McGuinty won a second majority government for the Liberals in Ontario on Wednesday night, a triumph for a party that earlier expressed fears of a drop to minority status.
- Ontario rejects electoral reform in referendum
- Ontario voters have rejected a proposed electoral reform that would have seen some provincial legislators chosen based on a party's share of the popular vote, results showed Thursday.
- Ontario voter turnout a record low
- The percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in Wednesday's Ontario election hit an all-time low despite changes introduced in an effort to boost turnout.
- Ont. Green party scores 8 per cent of vote
- No Green party candidates made it to the Ontario legislature in Wednesday's election, but that defeat was sweetened by a swell in their share of the popular vote, which more than doubled.
- McGuinty only leader not facing leadership questions
- Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty won re-election in Ottawa South and NDP Leader Howard Hampton again won his northern Ontario riding of Kenora-Rainy River. PC Leader John Tory was defeated.
