[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: Make Health Care a Defining issue in the coming election - Attend the Sept. 13 Rally in Toronto - Get on the Bus!

[Terrie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marlene Rivier <marlene_rivier at rogers.com>
Date: 29 August 2011 15:12
Subject: Make Health Care a Defining issue in the coming election - Attend
the Sept. 13 Rally in Toronto - Get on the Bus!
To: Marlene_rivier at rogers.com


**
Hi all,
We have a coach bus (its a long trip) on reserve for September 13; now we
just need to fill the seats.  This is where you come in!  Please consider
making this important journey and spread the word!  Contact me at 613 222
8392 or preferably by email (marlene_rivier at rogers.com) so that I will have
your email address and can update you on departure and return times and
locations.

Stay tuned for a panel discussion on the benefits and future of Public
Health Care on September 27, JK Wylie Room, 230 Gilmour (thanks to
the support of our PSAC friends!) at 7 PM.  Reserve the evening, poster to
follow.

Watch for an All Candidates Debate on Health Care in Ottawa West-Nepean.
Details to follow.

I have also attached an excellent tabloid prepared by the folks at the
Ontario Health Coalition.  See below for details.
Marlene

Save Public Medicare! Information

------------------------------

*Leading into the provincial election on October 6 we are working to make
sure that Ontarians are aware that there is a choice to improve health care
within our public health care system. To that end, we have produced an
easy-to-read colourful newsprint "tabloid" that gives the real story on how
much we all benefit from public services, and who is benefiting from tax
cuts. Already more than 110,000 newsprint "tabloids" have been distributed
across the province. We have 90,000 more waiting to go out. For your
information -- a pdf version of the tabloid is attached.*

The key messages of this publication are included below. There is NO cost to
order!

   - Can you help to distribute the leaflet by dropping off leaflets at your
   local library, seniors' centres, community agencies and any other venue you
   can think of?
   - Can you drop some off door-to-door in your neighbourhoods?

If so please send us the following info ASAP.

*Name:
Organization (if applicable):
Address:
City/Town:
Postal Code:
Telephone (day):
Telephone (evening):
Email:
*
*Number of copies ordered: (they come in bundles of 200)
*
*Where will you be distributing them?*


------------------
*Everything** You** Ever Wanted to Know** about* *Health Care* and Taxes
*
Here is a summary of the main messages:
  *
*What would you do with $41,000 per year?
*
Picture an average family that most Ontarians can relate to...kids going to
publicly-subsidized universities and colleges after finishing public school.
Grandparents, receiving their public pensions, whose heart and cancer care
is provided by the public health system. A mom who had her children in the
local public hospital while subsidized on maternity leave through public
unemployment insurance.

*The average Canadian family receives $41,000 in tax-funded programs and
services each year.*
We all benefit from taxes more than we may realize. Taxes put out fires,
keep our streets safe, educate our children, provide our families with
health care, ensure our food and water are safe, build and maintain
infrastructure for businesses to grow, care for our most vulnerable
citizens, preserve our culture, support our environment and parks....In
other words, they provide us benefits every hour of the day, every day of
the year.

*More than a decade's worth of tax cuts have disproportionately line the
pockets of Canada's most affluent families*. Tax cuts have eroded the
fairness of our tax system, benefitting those who are the best off, and
hurting average people.

*In fact, it is tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest, not health
care, that are eating up more of Ontario's budget. *Ontario now spends the
2nd lowest amount of any province on health care per person. We are among
the lowest in the country in spending on all programs and services. If we
had not given away more than $18 billion per year in corporate tax cuts and
tax cuts that have benefited the wealthiest, we could afford more and better
programs and services for everyone.

*Do you know what health care and education would cost if you had to pay
out-of-pocket?*
$20,000 - 30,000 per year private school tuition, $12,000 - $14,600 for two
days in an intensive care unit, $66,500 per year for a space in a nursing
home if there were no public tax-funded subsidies....(a full list is in the
newspaper leaflet). In fact, private for-profit hospitals and clinics charge
OHIP -- and they charge patients too -- for the same services. Costs at the
private clinics are higher than costs in the public health system -- by
hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. Ontarians simply cannot afford
the thousands of dollars it costs to pay for private health care.

*Improve health care as a public system that benefits us all.*18,500
hospital beds have been cut since 1990. Now, Ontario funds our hospitals
less than virtually everywhere in Canada. The results are all around us:
closed local ERs, elderly patients charged hundreds of dollars per day in an
attempt to force them out of hospital, overcrowded hospitals, cancelled
surgeries, overwhelmed staff. And the problem is not only in hospitals. Wait
lists for care outside hospitals are too long. More than 20,000 people are
waiting for long term care home placements. 10,000 are waiting for home care
-- and many don't even get onto wait lists.

*On October 6 there is a provincial election in Ontario.* Let's insist that
our political parties and candidates commit to a democratic public health
system -- one in which Ontarians have a real say to ensure that funding goes
to supporting and improving care. Let's ensure that we have a fair tax
system that provides the care our communities need, when and where we need
it.




-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
“If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant.” June Callwood
'If it is not on the menu  cook it yourself'  Buffy St Marie
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