Executive Summary

Since our founding Convention in March 1957, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) has consistently advocated for our vision of a universally accessible health care system for all Ontarians.

Our last comprehensive Convention policy paper on health care was: “Your Health, Your Future, Your Life - Our Vision for Health Care in Ontario” which was endorsed by delegates at our 1999 Convention. Health care was also a component of the 2003 Convention Policy Paper “Organize! For Stronger Unions, for Stronger Human Rights, for Stronger Communities”.

Our vision for health care draws on the experiences of:

• Dedicated health care workers who provide needed services, and who are profoundly troubled by the misdirection of public policy and the failures of the institutions which employ them; and
• Workers and their families who in the past used or continue to use the services of Ontario’s health care system.

The health care system itself must be based on the principles expressed in Justice Emmet Hall’s 1964 Royal Commission on Health Services, which were reaffirmed and defined in the 1984 Canada Health Act.  To quote from our 2003 Convention document, these principles are:

Public Administration
The administration of the health care insurance plan of a province or territory must be carried out on a non-profit basis by a public authority.

Comprehensiveness
All medically necessary services provided by hospitals and doctors must be insured.

Universality
All insured persons in a province or territory must be entitled to public health insurance coverage on uniform terms and conditions.

Portability
Coverage for insured services must be maintained when an insured person moves or travels within Canada or travels outside the country.

Accessibility
Reasonable access by insured persons to medically necessary hospital and physician services must be unimpeded by financial or other barriers.