FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 28, 2002

Health care workers applaud Romanow

TORONTO – Health care workers across Ontario are applauding federal health commissioner Roy Romanow following the release of his long-awaited report on Medicare.

“Roy Romanow has made the case, convincingly and conclusively, that a well-funded, publicly-operated Medicare system is best for all Canadians,” said Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. “This report is a major setback for those who howl for the chance to profit from the sickness of others and line their own pockets with public dollars.”

OPSEU represents over 20,000 Ontario health care workers, including professionals and support staff in hospitals and in the community as well as in laboratories, ambulance services, home care programs, long-term care, mental health, and the Ontario Ministry of Health.

“Health care workers will fight to make sure the new money Commissioner Romanow recommends is delivered to the front lines of the health care system and that some of it reaches the dedicated workers who have been subsidizing it with low wages and substandard working conditions for too long,” she said.

“Romanow gave the supporters of private profit, like the Ontario Hospital Association, ample opportunity to make the case for more private-sector involvement in the health care system and they failed to do so,” Casselman said. “They failed because they have no case. Adequately-funded public Medicare is better, cheaper, and fairer than any private sector alternative.

“We are calling on the Prime Minister and provincial leaders to throw their full financial and political support behind this fantastic national program that is the envy of the world.”

Casselman said the Romanow report identified several areas that could become key battlegrounds in the months ahead.

“Canadians should watch carefully what happens with home care and diagnostic services like MRI and CT scans,” she said. “These are the areas where the behaviour of our politicians will tell us whether we need to vote them out at the first opportunity.

“If Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement understands what this report means politically, he’ll drop his private clinic plans right now.”

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For more information:

Randy Robinson (416) 788-9134
Jordan Berger (416) 702-4682

For more information on the future of Medicare , click on the image to the left