What is the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership thinking when they make health care cuts ahead of an election year? The cuts announced in the fall and implemented this winter match the funding shortfall each region faces. Rather than addressing the gaps, Quebec City responded by cutting funding.
Outaouais’ chronic underfunding has led to emergency room closures and overcrowded hospitals. Despite wait lists that stretch for years, the region is now cutting doctor and specialist positions.
This poses a serious threat to the public health care system. In Gatineau, there’s been a notable increase in private nursing and para-health services. These services offer convenience – having a nurse visit your home for blood work or prenatal care can ease the burden on busy families and high-risk pregnancies. As public care faces repeated cuts, more people are turning to these private options.
Pregnancy care, once exclusively within the public system, is now increasingly offered privately. New moms seeking care are often drawn to these faster and more accessible services. Newborn care and support for families have traditionally been part of public health care, but the trend toward privatization is changing that.
With cuts last fall and more expected this spring, the shift toward private health care seems inevitable. Quebecers, across party lines, have consistently voiced their support
for a strong public system. An informal poll conducted by this newsroom found that
while many residents are willing to pay for urgent services like scans, blood tests, and emergency care, they firmly believe those services should remain part of the public system. Having access to private options may provide some security, but the consensus remains that fixing the public system should be the top priority.
Premier François Legault’s recent cuts place more than just individual treatments at risk. The entire public health care system is in jeopardy. Whether by starving public funding or pursuing overt privatization, the outcome is the same – a weakened public system. Quebecers are left to wonder if these cuts are quietly paving the way for privatization. What other conclusion can be drawn in the face of these reductions?
Quebecers have made it clear they value public health care and expect their leaders
to prioritize strengthening it, not undermining it. The risk is far greater than delays for
knee replacements or asthma treatment – it threatens the entire public system’s future.
Publisher’s note: Readers consistently view dental care as part of overall health care. Expanding public coverage to include dental services is widely supported – further
proof that Quebecers want more public care, not less.
