Ontario Health Coalition

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The Ontario Health Coalition is a network of over 400 grassroots community organizations representing virtually all areas of Ontario, Canada. Its primary goal is to empower the members of our constituent organizations to become actively engaged in the making of public policy on matters related to health care and healthy communities. The Ontario Health Coalition supports preserving Canada's Medicare system and the overall goal and policy of universal public health care.

Currently the Ontario Health Coalition has been spearheading a series of public plebiscites over the provincial government's controversial plans to provide hospital services through public-private partnership (P3) rather than traditional public funding.

[edit] Membership

Members include over 50 local health coalitions in communities across the province, these groups are largely left-wing advocacy groups which include; local health action committees; health professionals’ organizations; physicians that support medicare such as the Medical Reform Group; medical students’ groups that support medicare; non-profit service providers; health sector unions; women's groups such as the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the Older Women's Network, Canadian Pensioners Concerned, Immigrant Women's Health Centre, Voices of Positive Women; seniors' groups including the Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens Organizations, CAW retirees, Alliance of Seniors to Protect Social Programs; low income and homeless peoples' organizations including Low Income Families Together, Food Share of Metro Toronto, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty; social service organizations; workers’ advocacy organizations; ethnic and multiracial minorities; the Ontario Federation of Labour; and other organizations such as the Canadian Council of South Asian Seniors (Ont.), the Association of Neurologically Disabled, Ontario Coalition for Social Justice, Social Planning Council of Metro Toronto, Native Women's Resource Centre, Aids Action Now, Birth Control and Venereal Disease Centre, the Canadian Federation of Students (Ontario division), Oxfam Canada and the Injured Workers Resource Centre, among others.

The Ontario Health Coalition is affiliated to the Canadian Health Coalition and provides provincial coordination of community-based health coalitions.

[edit] External links

• Ontario Health Coalition
• Hamilton Health Coalition (organizing plebiscite on P3 hospitals for March 25, 2006)
• P-3 Watch (website critical of public-private partnerships)
• Medical Reform Group (Organization of physicians, medical students and others "committed to ensuring access to high quality health care for all Canadians.")
• Canadian Health Coalition