{"id":7155,"date":"2026-09-01T15:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/?p=7155"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T20:41:56","slug":"socialized-healthcare-was-won-by-struggle-unity-and-struggle-are-needed-to-defend-and-expand-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/socialized-healthcare-was-won-by-struggle-unity-and-struggle-are-needed-to-defend-and-expand-it-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Socialized healthcare was won by struggle \u2013 unity and struggle are needed to defend and expand it now!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Led by healthcare workers and advocates in Alberta, tens of thousands of people across Canada are rallying on September 1. They are opposing the Alberta government\u2019s new healthcare legislation which introduces two-tiered care and widespread privatization, and calling on Ottawa to enforce the Canada Health Act which prohibits such threats to Medicare across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danielle Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party government passed Bill 11, the Health Statutes Amendment Act in December, and the law comes into effect on September 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The legislation establishes a two-tiered (\u201cdual practice\u201d) model for healthcare in Alberta, by allowing \u201cflexibly participating\u201d doctors to provide medically necessary care either through the publicly funded system or by private payment on a service-by-service basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This structural change to public healthcare allows for queue-jumping and contravenes the Canada Health Act\u2019s core elements of universality, accessibility, comprehensiveness and prohibition of extra-billing and user fees. Medicare is based on the principle that care is provided on the basis of need, not according to who can pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By creating a private insurance market for medically necessary care, the Alberta government is setting the stage for a huge increase in profits and economic and political power for private insurance companies. These monopoly corporations will use that to fuel their drive for increased privatization across Canada, jeopardizing public healthcare throughout the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, this new foothold for two-tier, privatized healthcare in Canada means that single-payer healthcare is no longer protected in trade agreements including through a renegotiated USMCA or other deal with the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the obvious threat, and the fact that health coalitions and healthcare workers have repeatedly called on Ottawa to enforce the Canada Health Act and take action against Alberta\u2019s Bill 11, the federal government has been largely silent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only in August, one month before the changes take effect, did federal Health Minister Majorie Michel write a \u201cletter of concern\u201d to the Alberta government. This wholly insufficient response, combined with Ottawa\u2019s inaction against other province\u2019s moves toward privatization, shows the level of federal collusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public healthcare won \u2013 and defended \u2013 through struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mass, country-wide demonstrations on September 1 are a necessary and urgent response to Bill 11 and the threat to public healthcare in Alberta and throughout Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicare was not a gift from government \u2013 as with all social programs, it was won through long and determined struggle by working people. Decades before the CCF\/NDP stood up to and fought the medical establishment and implemented Canada\u2019s first universal health program in Saskatchewan in 1962, workers and socialists had pressed for socialized medicine. This included the efforts of Communist Party members like Dr. Norman Bethune, James Litterick and Fred Rose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of his work for socialized medicine, Bethune organized the \u201cMontreal Group for the Security of the People\u2019s Health\u201d which released a detailed set of proposals for a socialized provincial medical system on the eve of Quebec\u2019s 1936 provincial election. The group\u2019s work brought a large part of the population into action on the issue of public healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first motion for provincial healthcare in Manitoba was introduced in the legislature by James Litterick who was elected for the Communist Party in 1936. The motion was defeated, but reflected the growing demand among the working class. The first legislation for a cross-Canada healthcare system was introduced in the federal legislature by Fred Rose, a Communist Party member who was elected for the Labor-Progressive Party in 1941 and re-elected in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These efforts, and many more like them, were key moments in the decades-long struggle of working people for universal public healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, in the face of corporations\u2019 relentless drive for privatization, the same scale of struggle is required to defend public healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Communist Party of Canada stands with health coalitions and healthcare workers across the country on September 1. We reiterate our longstanding call for the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act and oppose Alberta\u2019s Bill 11 and all efforts by other provinces to weaken, jeopardize and privatize public healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also note that protecting public healthcare means adequately funding it. We call on Ottawa and all provincial governments to immediately restore health funding that has been cut from the public system, and to increase it to allow for the expansion of public healthcare to include universal vision, dental, pharmacare, mental health and long-term care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity and struggle can win!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Led by healthcare workers and advocates in Alberta, tens of thousands of people across Canada are rallying on September 1. They are opposing the Alberta government\u2019s new healthcare legislation which introduces two-tiered care and widespread privatization, and calling on Ottawa to enforce the Canada Health Act which prohibits such threats to Medicare across Canada. Danielle…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7159,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155\/revisions\/7159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}