The erosion of Ontario’s public healthcare system
- Bridget Potasky
- 6 minutes ago
- 2 min read
by Bridget Potasky February 5, 2026
Following Ontario’s decision to increase funding for private healthcare clinics, advocates warn that this is more likely to exacerbate an already dire situation than to improve it.
In June 2025, Premier Doug Ford’s government announced an expansion of publicly funded private surgical and diagnostic clinics, allowing taxpayer dollars to be used to pay for procedures delivered by for-profit providers.
These centres will provide MRI and CT scans as well as endoscopies. This expansion comes in addition to the province increasing the number of cataract and orthopedic surgeries permitted at private clinics.
The government’s stated intention behind these changes is to alleviate wait times and backlogs in Ontario’s healthcare system. The province states these clinics will serve over 800,000 patients.
The underfunding of public healthcare
However, a report published by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) in January 2026 argues that chronic underfunding is the primary driver of Ontario’s health-care crisis, and that the expansion of for-profit clinics is worsening, rather than resolving, the problem.
The OCHU report states “The Ford government recently directed the hospitals to plan for a 2% annual increase in funding over the next three years, well short of the 6% average since 2020.”
It is argued this is well below cost pressure from inflation, population growth, and an aging population that is putting strain on the system.
An analysis by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario showed that the reduction in healthcare funding would lead to the job losses of 9,000 nurses and personal support workers in Ontario’s healthcare system by 2028.
“The thought that we would lose such an enormous number is striking”, said Michael Hurley, the President of the OCHU.