NDP Leader Howard Hampton is raising a red flag about Dalton McGuinty ushering in more U.S.-style health care in the province of Ontario.

Today, the Medicor Cancer private, fee-for-service clinic is opening in Toronto. Patients have to pay $2,500 to sign up for the health care service, and pay $1,200 a month in ongoing membership fees.

In Question Period, Hampton called on the premier to stand up for Medicare.

“Here in Ontario, people believe in Medicare – in providing health care to every man, woman and child regardless of financial situation – not the kind of American-style
pay-your-way-to-the-front-of-the-line health care we′re now seeing with greater frequency because of Dalton McGuinty and his broken promises,” Hampton said.

American-style health care undercuts health care for working families, Hampton said.

“Private clinics like Medicor Cancer drain desperately needed doctors and nurses from our public health care system, they undermine the principle of universal access for health care, and they tend to take on only the simplest cases – leaving the public system with the most difficult and most expensive cases,” Hampton said.

“In short – private American-style health care makes public health care worse and medical wait times longer for ordinary people,” the NDP Leader said.

Hampton says he understands why cancer patients are desperate for care. But he says the best strategy to meet that need is a stronger public system.