Businesses want private health care
Date: Thursday, July 21 2005
Topic:
Gillian Livingston
Canadian Press
July 19, 2005
TORONTO -- Ontario businesses believe that allowing more private health care would improve the system and increase the province's ability to lure new businesses, according to a survey released Tuesday by the provincial Chamber of Commerce.
International companies contemplating an investment in Ontario carefully examine the value and benefits of the health-care system, said president Len Crispino.
"While we have enjoyed a reasonably good health-care system that has attracted some degree of investment, we are losing that advantage today," he said at a news conference.
"We are experiencing a system that is broken, that is not accessible to all," he said. "When you have to wait for an MRI for a period of a couple months -- when your own dog can get one fairly quickly -- there's something inherently wrong with that system."
Health Minister George Smitherman disagreed, pointing to recent investments in the province by auto giants Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Toyota fuelled in part by Ontario's publicly funded health-care system.
"The automotive investments in Ontario over the course of the last several months stand as pretty solid evidence that health care is one of our key economic advantages," Smitherman said.
"The chamber will need to be very balanced in its consideration to make sure that in a rush to endorse some private panacea that we're not making mistakes . . . to lose the competitive advantage that we currently enjoy."
Ontario's publicly funded health-care system, along with federal and provincial financial support, played a key role in the decisions by the three car makers to investment in the province.
http://www.canada.com/hamilton/news/story.html?id=77451dc9-4bd5-4dad-a665-60d7e066a85f
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