Planned Parenthood Toronto stands with our communities and is strongly against the recent move to end the life-saving expansion of hospital care to uninsured persons by the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Launched in March 2020, the ‘Physicians and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons Program’ has been transformational for both the healthcare system and residents without OHIP. The program has been lauded for improving health outcomes for non-insured clients, reducing their financial hardships, decreasing burdensome administrative pressures for providers, and expanding cost-friendly preventative medicine to a broader swath of the population. Not only is this decision to end the program unwise for our system, it will result in unnecessary hardship, tragedy, and death for our neighbours and friends in Ontario.

We also want to provide an on the ground reality check. When announcing this cut, the Ministry of Health noted that uninsured patients can still access publicly-funded care at community health centres (CHCs) in the province. While it is technically true that CHCs such as PPT are able to provide some services like primary care and diagnostic support to non-insured patients, we are critically underfunded and unable to provide even close to the range of services offered at hospitals. Only some CHCs receive funding to specifically serve non-insured populations and the resources that are available are a mere fraction relative to the demand, resulting in long waitlists for limited services. For time sensitive procedures like abortion, non-insured patients have to navigate a system rife with barriers that delays critical procedures, harms patients, and ultimately increases costs to the system. While uninsured youth between the ages of 13-29 will always be welcome at PPT, we know that we are unable to meet all of their health needs. With the announcement of the repeal of this program, the demand that CHCs are already struggling to meet will grow exponentially overnight and we are truly afraid for the health wellbeing and lives of the communities we support.

As a CHC serving youth and committed to a healthy, safe and just future for our communities, we stand in solidarity with the incredible organizing that migrant networks and medical associations are doing to protect this program. Alongside them we demand that the Ontario government stop the cuts to healthcare for uninsured people and that this looming repeal be put on hold until permanent solutions for equitable, free and quality health access can be established. Moreover, we call for the government to be on the right side of history and expand funding to programs and services that are supporting non-insured clients and helping to address the barriers they face today across the healthcare system.