Latest news with #Bill60
Global News
02-07-2025
- Health
- Global News
Ford government moving to expand privately run, publicly funded surgeries
The Ford government is taking the next steps in its plan to increase the role of privately operated health-care centres in the provincial system, opening applications for orthopedic surgeries. The move comes a few days after the province announced licences for 57 privately operated MRI, CT scan and endoscopy clinics. While the new centres allow private and for-profit operators to work within the public system, the government has stressed that services will continue to be covered by provincial health insurance. Specifically, any centres that receive licences won't be allowed to refuse to treat someone for an OHIP-covered service if they don't buy an upgrade. They also won't be allowed to charge fees to receive insured services faster. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Our government is taking bold action to protect Ontario and boost access to publicly funded surgeries and diagnostic imaging so families can conveniently access the care they need sooner and closer to home,' Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a statement. Story continues below advertisement The latest move means applications are open for orthopedic surgery centres to apply for licences. The government will spend $125 million in public money to support the move, which it hopes will add 20,000 surgeries to the system over two years. The Ford government started work on its major health-care system shakeup with legislation tabled at the beginning of 2023. The law was passed in May of that year. The legislation — Bill 60 — was introduced by the Ford government to cut waiting times. It laid out a long-term blueprint that would slowly shift how some health services are delivered. It set out to expand the number of cataract surgeries, diagnostic imaging and testing operations taking place in private clinics, with the long-term goal of creating a new system to perform hip- and knee-replacement surgeries. The number of surgeries rerouted to the private sector was initially relatively low, while licences were granted. In the 2022-23 year, roughly 24,500 surgeries — or four per cent — took place in community clinics. Before the Ford government introduced its changes, there were roughly 900 private clinics in the province, mainly offering diagnostics, imaging and testing. — with files from The Canadian Press
Global News
27-06-2025
- Health
- Global News
Ontario awards licences for publicly funded, privately operated diagnostic centres
The Ford government has announced that 57 new privately operated surgical and diagnostic centres will be brought online and integrated into the public health system as it tries to reduce wait times. On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled the first new privately operated facility to be given an operating licence — a new building in Richmond Hill, Ont., which will be run as a non-profit. As part of the creation of 57 new privately run facilities — referred to by the government as community surgical and diagnostic centres — Ontario will chip in a total $155 million over two years. 'The 57 new centres we are rolling out across Ontario will make a huge difference for people in the province, helping them get the care they need, when they need it,' Ford said in a statement. Story continues below advertisement 'It's all part of our plan to protect and improve our health-care services, all while ensuring people always receive the care they need with their OHIP card.' Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Thirty-five of the centres have been licensed to offer MRI and CT scans, while another 22 will deal with GI endoscopy procedures. Ontario NDP MPP France Gélinas said the announcement was a step in the wrong direction. 'That is public money going into private hands instead of our local hospitals, where help is desperately needed,' 'This model of private delivery with public dollars is alarming and unfair. Study after study shows that private clinics benefit the wealthiest, while leaving the rest of us behind. That is public money going into private hands instead of our local hospitals, where help is desperately needed. All of this has been made possible through Bill 60. 'This model of private delivery with public dollars is alarming and unfair. Study after study shows that private clinics benefit the wealthiest, while leaving the rest of us behind. Ford made Friday's announcement at the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre in Richmond Hill, which received the first such licence to operate a new centre. It will get $14 million from the province and provide MRIs, CT scans and endoscopy procedures to 115,000 patients over two years. Story continues below advertisement The Walter and Maria Schroeder Foundation committed $300 million for the new centre. Health Minister Sylvia Jones said no special favours were given to the new ambulatory centre, which was built without assurance it would be granted a licence if it applied. The new centres will help alleviate the strain on public hospitals, the provincial government said. The premier said that 'hospitals are at full capacity, but this will relieve them.' Announcing the licences marks a major checkpoint on a plan the government announced in 2023 to expand the role of privately delivered, publicly funded operators in the health-care system. The plan — titled Your Health — was announced at the beginning of 2023, with legislation to support it passed during the spring. In the year that has followed, the government has been working through details of how it will manage oversight of new private clinics. — with files from The Canadian Press
Toronto Star
06-06-2025
- Health
- Toronto Star
As Ontario pumps millions into private health care, public health will continue to suffer
Patient: 'How long is the wait?' Family doctor: 'We'll have to see.' The truth? Typical wait times for MRI scans and hip replacements jumped by 30 per cent in Ontario over the decade leading up to 2023. Bad as these trends are, waits are about to get worse. But rather than focus limited resources on the public system, Ontario plans to more than double the funding for private surgical and diagnostic facilities. The new budget will add another $280 million over the next two years to the $275 million already spent on investor-owned facilities. The grand total amounts to well over half-a-billion taxpayer dollars paid into the pockets of private facilities over five years for cataract surgeries, joint replacements, and CT and MRI scans. That leaves half a billion dollars less to make sure that every Ontarian has access to a family doctor. Where does that leave the 1-in-4 Ontarians expected to lose access to primary care by 2026? Yet the funding slated to connect 300,000 people to primary care health teams this year is a relatively paltry $235 million. It's a sum that barely scratches the surface, given that 4.4 million Ontarians won't have a family doctor by next year. The pool of qualified health professionals is limited. A worker hired by a private facility leaves one less available to work in the public system. Consider Alberta — as funding increased for surgeries performed in private facilities, the workforce shifted to for-profit facilities. The Alberta Surgical Initiative was started in 2018-19 and shifted funding toward private, for-profit surgical facilities. As public dollars were pumped into investor-owned facilities, the number of surgeries performed in public hospitals declined and wait times for everyone increased. It also proved far more expensive: The average cost of outsourced procedures rose by 79 per cent since they began contracting private surgical services in 2019, far outstripping inflation. As Alberta's costs swelled, so did public wait times for most priority procedures, including knee replacements and cancer surgeries. The Alberta Surgical Initiative also failed to improve total surgical capacity. Their experience isn't unique. Ontario paid one privately owned facility (Clearpoint Health Network), 2.5 times more than its public hospitals to perform cataract surgeries and 3.1 times more to perform knee arthroscopies. It's impossible for Ontarians to gauge if they're getting value for the money because of Bill 60. Since its passage in May 2023, agreements made between the Ministry of Health and private providers are not disclosed to the public. Bill 60 blindfolds Ontarians from seeing which private facilities provide what services, how many, and at what cost. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Governments get ensnared into a vicious cycle of their own making: The longer waits grow, the more pressure builds for them to deliver services. Private facilities seem like a quick fix, but it leaves the public system with fewer health-care workers, which only further exacerbates public wait times. It's a domino effect that's difficult to stop. But stop it must. Longer-term strategies are needed. Ontario's decision to fund primary care teams is a major step in the right direction, but simultaneously funding private facilities will only further erode access to public ones. It's a downward spiral that Ontario continues to actively fund. It's time for Ontario to phase out for-profit staffing agencies altogether and replace them with a publicly funded alternative that ensures the availability of temporary staff when required. This would prevent ER closures and surgical cancellations. Funding public facilities must be prioritized. Half a billion dollars spent on private health facilities leaves half a billion dollars less to pay for public ones. The result? Ontarians wait longer for essential health services — or worse — are denied access to them altogether.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Council to review city's proposed $5.14 billion budget for approval
The Honolulu City Council today is scheduled to review for approval Mayor Rick Blangiardi's $5.14 billion budget package for fiscal year 2026. Submitted in early March, the mayor's budget—which proposes a $3.93 billion operating budget and a $1.21 billion capital improvement program that, if adopted, begins July 1—touted it would cover costs without raising real property tax rates, according to city officials. The city says spending priorities include directing $143.8 million to affordable housing and homeless service facilities. The Council is expected to vote to revise the mayor's spending plan, and take action on other public business. 'The Council is preparing to vote on 15 measures during the third reading, which includes all of the budget bills for this year, ' Aron Dote, the Council's director and chief communications officer, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. 'Although the bills had passed out of the Budget Committee, there are some important discussions needed to address, particularly regarding vacancy funding and various allocation and appropriation discussions.' Blangiardi's budget was deemed a more than 9 % increase over the city's current $4.7 billion budget, which the mayor officially signed and adopted in June 2024. Key city revenues were highlighted. Those included a projected $45.6 million increase in the city's real property tax revenue. Currently, those revenues amount to $1.72 billion but are expected to be at $1.77 billion in fiscal year 2026. Revenue increases occurred due to changes in the assessed values for residential properties across Oahu, according to Andy Kawano, city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services director. 'The residential class assessed valuation was up only 1.4 %, and the Residential A classification was up over 5 %, ' he previously told the Council's Budget Committee. 'Those classes drive the increase in real property tax.' Other long-term liabilities involve the over-$10 billion Skyline project expected to open for public service in Kakaako by 2031. Overall, Kawano noted, city departmental budgets will increase by $147 million. Some of those include rising public transportation costs—for bus and rail—which are pegged at $48.9 million ; $39.1 million to fund Honolulu's green waste program and new wastewater billing system in sanitation ; and an increase in salaries due to overtime for public safety and staff recruitment at $34.2 million. Kawano also asserted the city's next CIP budget targets $697.9 million for the construction of police, fire, ambulance and ocean safety facility improvements as well as upgrades to city-owned parks, streets and utilities. As part of the budget process, the Blangiardi administration proposed a 10-year, 115 % sewer fee rate increase that's expected to begin this summer. City officials say proposed sewer fee hikes under city-initiated Bill 60 are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu's wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040. And they assert the work includes a $2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree. On May 27, the Council's Budget Committee approved on a split vote the passage of a committee draft of Bill 60. Budget Committee Chair Tyler Dos Santos-Tam's version of the measure, which shaves the city's decade-long span for increased rates down to about six years, will start Jan. 1, 2026, and run through 2031. Dos Santos-Tam's Bill 60 proposes sewer fee increases for a household that uses about 6, 000 gallons per month—deemed 50 % of all single-family households in Honolulu—equates to a 6 % increase in sewer fees in fiscal year 2026, 7.5 % in fiscal year 2027, 8.5 % in fiscal year 2028, followed by 9 % over the remaining three fiscal years. The Council is also expected to review for approval Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation's $968.3 million budget package proposed for city rail in fiscal year 2026. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. inside the Council chambers, 530 S. King St.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Honolulu City Council advances sewer fees bill
Mayor Rick Blangiardi administration's proposed 10-year, 115 % sewer fee rate increase that's expected to begin this summer has been countered by the Honolulu City Council. The Council's five-member Budget Committee voted 4-1 Tuesday, with Radiant Cordero dissenting, to approve passage of a committee draft of the city-initiated Bill 60. Budget Committee Chair Tyler Dos Santos-Tam's version of the measure, which shaves the city's decade-long span for increased rates down to about six years, will start Jan. 1, 2026 and run through 2031. Dos Santos-Tam's Bill 60 proposes sewer fee increases for a household that uses about 6, 000-gallons per month—deemed 50 % of all single-family households in Honolulu—equates to a 6 % increase in sewer fees in fiscal year 2026, 7.5 % in fiscal year 2027, 8.5 % in fiscal year 2028, followed by 9 % over the remaining three fiscal years. If adopted, Bill 60 would see a 60 % base charge—a fixed monthly fee—and a 40 % volumetric charge, or fees based on monthly water usage. Currently, city and county sewer bills calculate a 70 % base charge—a fee of $77.55 for all single-family homes—and a 30 % volumetric rate, which is applied equally for every 1, 000 gallons used, the city Department of Environmental Services states. ENV indicates that a household using 6, 000 gallons per month pays $99.77—with the base of $77.55 plus $22.22 for the volumetric rate. Dos Santos-Tam's version of Bill 60 also will align with ENV's 6-year capital improvement projects plan. 'So we can get through a full CIP cycle, ' he added. 'And then we can deal with what happens in the out years thereafter.' Under Dos Santos-Tam's Bill 60, the budget committee voted to allow 'rule-making authority ' for ENV to set up a program called Customer Assistance for Residential Environmental Services, or CARES, to help with 'affordability and equity ' of increased sewer fee rates. Sewer customers who qualify based on household income of less than 80 % area median income will be eligible for a $20 to $25 credit on their monthly base fee. The program will be funded at $10 million per year. Customers will have to apply for the program to prove eligibility and then be re-verified every six months, ENV states. Bill 60 is scheduled to return for a third and final reading before the full Council on June 4. In October, ENV initially proposed to increase sewer fees annually for the next 10 years—by 9 % over the first six years, followed by smaller annual increases of 8 %, 7 %, 6 % and 5 % over the subsequent four years. But by April, ENV Director Roger Babcock presented to the Council's Budget Committee the so-called 6 % option—which sees sewer rates rise by 6 % on July 1. Those rates would increase by 7.5 % in 2027, 8.5 % in 2028, 9 % in the following four years, then rise by 8 %, 7.5 % and 7 % in the final three years, ending in 2035. City officials say proposed sewer fee hikes are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu's wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040. The fee hikes also will fund projects to prepare the city's wastewater infrastructure for climate change and sea-level rise, city officials say. And they assert the work includes a $2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree. Previously, Council Chair Tommy Waters—who does not sit on the budget committee—offered his version of Bill 60, a 6.75 % increase for the first five years, starting July 1. The initial increases would be followed by an 8.75 % increase for the next two years, then a decrease to 7.75 %, 6.75 % and 5.5 % over the remaining years, 'thereby creating savings, ' Waters said previously, adding instead of a 100 % increase over the decade, 'it would amount to approximately about a 70 % increase over 10 years.' But at Tuesday's hearing, Waters admitted his version of the bill was found to have calculation errors. 'We started from 2012 rather than 2016 … which is the last date that sewer increases took effect, ' he explained. During a presentation, ENV Director Roger Babcock highlighted that Waters' proposed Bill 60 in fiscal year 2026 would provide less revenues—about $397.5 million, a 13 % drop—compared with the city's current revenues of $457.03 million devoted to sewer funding. 'So that's a $60 million decrease, ' Babcock said, 'which would be very problematic for the program.' In contrast, Babcock noted the city's proposed 6 % option would provide $484.4 million in revenue needed to support required sewage system upgrades. Initially stating he'd resubmit a corrected version of his measure, Waters later backed Dos Santos-Tam's draft of Bill 60. Still, Waters noted households using 6, 000 gallons of water or less per month could see their sewer bills rise by over 61 %, from $99.77 per month to $160.85 per month. 'And those using 9, 000 gallons per month, which is the typical user—a family with two kids, a dog, maybe in-laws—that would go up from $110 to $204 ' per month, an over 85 % increase, said Waters. 'I mean that's really what we're voting on.' At the meeting, city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services Director Andy Kawano favored Dos Santos-Tam's measure as 'revenue calculations will meet our required minimums going forward through 10 years.' However, 'there could be an option, if it's more palatable for Council members, to truncate the (10-year ) term to five to seven years, that's possible, ' Kawano claimed. 'If we do that, we would meet our required minimums for every year, for one through five or one through seven, depending on what Council members decide.' Ways to defray the overall cost of the city's wastewater operations also were touched on at the meeting. During public testimony, Frank Doyle, a former city and county ENV director, testified the Council and city should work together to end the 2010 federally-mandated consent decree that included upgrading the island's sewage treatment plants to 'secondary treatment.' Although secondary treatment does not make the water drinkable, it does turn it into recycled water that can be used for things like landscaping, city officials say. 'Since entering the consent decree the city has spent billions of dollars for improvements of our wastewater system, and has essentially completed almost all of the requirements of the decree except for the one, largest project—a $2.5 billion (secondary treatment ) project for Sand Island, ' Doyle said. 'If secondary treatment was required at Sand Island (Wastewater Treatment Plant ) in 2010—because it really holds some significant public health or environmental concern—that project would have been prioritized immediately.' 'Instead, it comes in last, not needed until 2030, ' he said, adding no real public health concern occurred in 2010. 'And there isn't any today.' Doyle requested the Council 'urge the administration to continue to pursue a discussion with EPA ' on the consent decree. 'And if the administration doesn't want to do it, the Council should do it, ' he added. In 2010 the negotiated consent decree included three phases and a 25-year implementation schedule, the city says. According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the work was meant to reduce the public health risk caused by exposure to pathogens in raw sewage and the amount of harmful pollutants affecting the island's marine environment. At the time, overflows caused millions of gallons of untreated sewage to be discharged into water off Oahu. The city had to pay a total fine of $1.6 million to be split between the federal government and state to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act and Hawaii's water pollution law, the EPA states. Those violating acts included the March 24, 2006, Beachwalk force main break which spilled about 50 million gallons of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal, according to the EPA. For his part, Waters stated 'as a Council, we've asked the administration to discuss with the EPA removing the need for secondary treatment or extending the term of the consent decree.' 'We need to extend the sewer fees, but not for the full 10 years, as requested, ' he added, 'to give us time to work with the EPA and find alternatives to funding the wastewater system.'
