RELEASE: Health Coalition responds to shocking attack, calls on Health Minister to desist and instead answer for non-action on private clinics with the gravitas the issue deserves
- Ontario Health Coalition
- 11 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Posted: June 26, 2025
Toronto – Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra responded with the following letter to statements made on the Health Minister’s behalf by her spokespeople. The Coalition has been contacted by some media outlets for a response to the shocking tone and allegations in the statements.
Letter to the Honourable Sylvia Jones, Minister of Health, June 26, 2025:
“We are writing to you in response to statements made on your behalf by your spokespeople Ema Popovic and Hannah Jensen. The statements contain broad mischaracterizations of the Ontario Health Coalition and our work.
Last week, we issued a formal complaint including details from fifty patients who had been extra-billed in private clinics. This follows other media releases the Coalition released in 2024 containing reports from patients who were victims of extra-billing and user fees in private clinics, as well as reports about the unprecedented local hospital and emergency department closures across Ontario.
In response, your spokespeople have stated that the Ontario Health Coalition is “NDP-backed”, and, “has spent over a decade [or longer] accomplishing nothing while standing ideologically opposed to any innovation in our health system”.
These statements are false and defamatory.