Two-fifths of Canadians are public health purists, according to a poll done by the Angus Reid Institute. .Public health purists are people who see no to little place for privatization and say any change will exacerbate current challenges within the system, according to the Monday poll. .The poll said three-tenths of Canadians are private healthcare proponents. Private healthcare proponents said increasing privatization is a necessary evolution and are open to seeing hybrid healthcare options from countries such as Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom brought to their own provinces. .It said one-third are curious but hesitant. Curious but hesitant finds value in private healthcare concepts, but they are concerned about how far to go. .While the Canadian government has been explicit it wants new money to go to strengthening public healthcare, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has praised the Ontario government expanding private healthcare. .The Ontario government said in August it plans to stabilize the healthcare system by increasing surgeries at private clinics. .READ MORE: Ontario to fund surgeries at more private clinics to assist healthcare system.Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province needs to be bold, innovative, and creative when looking for ways to improve healthcare. She scolded people who choose to fight for the status quo "no matter what.”.“People want better healthcare," said Jones. .Many Canadians are at odds over what constitutes healthcare privatization. While Ontario is the latest province to publicly fund surgeries at private clinics to eliminate the wait lists caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta and Saskatchewan have done the same. .The poll said half find this decision by these provinces to not constitute private healthcare. It added one-third disagree. .Seven-tenths of people view paying out of pocket for treatment as privatization. One-fifth disagree, and one-tenth are unsure. .There is delineation among the three healthcare groups when it comes to defining paying out of pocket as private healthcare, but not complete agreement. .There are 89% of public health purists who said they believe it should be defined as privatization. More than half of private healthcare proponents agree, but one-third say it is not. .There is more division among these groups on the issue of publicly funding surgeries at private clinics. .Seven-tenths of public health purists say this is privatization, but one-fifth disagree. There is less consensus among the curious but hesitant and private proponents. .The poll went on to say two-fifths of Albertans and Saskatchewanians and half of Manitobans and Ontarians believe provinces are ruining public healthcare to make private options look better. .It said 96% of purists believe more private healthcare will exacerbate staffing shortages in public facilities. Three-tenths of proponents agree, but three-fifths do not hold that view. .Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with all 13 premiers on February 7 to determine how much money the Canadian government will give to the provinces for healthcare..READ MORE: Trudeau meets with premiers over healthcare deal."Canadians are proud of our universal public healthcare system but we all have to recognize it hasn't been delivering at the level that Canadians would expect," said Trudeau. .The Canadian government is proposing to increase the Canada Health Transfer and sign separate bilateral funding agreements with each province and territory, but Ottawa said the money must target particular areas such as primary care and mental health. It wants the provinces to improve their data collection to better track healthcare outcomes..The poll was conducted online from February 1 to 4 among a representative randomized sample of 2,005 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. It has a margin of error of +/- two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
