A broad coalition of organizations is preparing to begin a national week of actions against Minister Christian Dubé’s health system reform and, more broadly, the privatization of health care and social services.
“The Quebec government is on the wrong track by saying that the private sector is the solution to the problems of accessibility to the public network, when we know very well that it is rather the cause! », Mentions the Health Solidarity Coalition, in a press release.
Activities will take place this week “in almost all regions of Quebec” with the aim of meeting citizens and informing them, indicates its co-coordinator, Geneviève Lamarche.
They will notably consist of demonstrations, information kiosks and the distribution of leaflets. “These are visibility actions to show that there are divergent visions. We must make these issues known to the population, so that it is not just managed by people who already know them,” explains Geneviève Lamarche.
According to her, citizens have little understanding of the effects of the growing role of the private sector in health, which they perceive rather as the only solution to the growing delays in accessing services.
“We reassure the population by telling them that they will not have to pay anything, because it will be covered by the health insurance card, but in the end, it is Quebecers who, collectively through their taxes , will assume much higher health costs in order to cover the significant portion of profits inherent in private medicine,” it is said.
The Coalition gives in particular as an example the contracts awarded to private personnel placement agencies that the government owed by means of a law “to counter their deleterious effects disrupting the network”.
“There are solutions that do not involve going to the private sector and, if we do not mobilize, the government will do what it wants,” insists Geneviève Larmarche.
According to the Coalition, improving access to care must instead involve “enhancing the public network and its staff”.
The reform of the Quebec health system initiated by Minister Christian Dubé has already started with the adoption of Bill 15, an imposing piece of legislation which notably established a new agency, Santé Québec.