Angus Reid poll shows 83% want increased medicare funding

A recent Angus Reid poll conducted for the Canadian Medical Association points to a need for increased funding for hospitals, not privatization of medicare, as suggested in the National Post.

The National Posts headline should have read 83% of Canadians favour increasing funding for medicare, said Michael Hurley, president of CUPEs Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. Instead, that survey finding is buried in the middle of the article.

Do we want reform as the Ontario Conservative government has doled it out, shutting hospitals and restructuring services so that hospital workers are constantly under stress trying to cope with ever-increasing workloads? Hurley asked. Or do we want genuine health care reform that doesnt pit parts of the system against the other, as the Tories have done?

Hospital workers support genuine reform without reductions in service, Hurley said. Two-tier privatization is not the answer Canadians are looking for we need only look south of the border to see where that leads.