Several private clinics in Toronto are now offering COVID-19 testing, as the second wave sweeps over a poorly prepared province. The cost per test varies from $50 to $400. The rationale being played by the corporate heads of companies offering testing is that they are providing a critical service in a time of need, citing that the Ontario Public Health Laboratory has approximately 80,000 tests waiting to be processed.
At a time when our beloved publicly funded healthcare system has breathed a sigh of relief, with the recent BC Supreme Court decision regarding the private Cambie Clinic, for-profit COVID testing is yet another frontal assault on a critical Canadian institution. One has only to compare COVID outcomes in Canada and the United States to conclude that for-profit healthcare is a brutal affront to a basic human right, and one that is frankly murderous. By restricting access to health services at the best of times, it increases vulnerability of certain populations in times of crisis.
While the CEOs of companies offering for-profit COVID testing claim benevolence, make no mistake about it – this is Medical Capitalism at its worst – a veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing. Their claim that they are offering this service on a slim profit margin is beyond disingenuous – a nasopharyngeal swab costs mere dollars – their margin is enormous.
Doug Ford recently announced that “it is an open market” for COVID testing. This truly reveals Ford’s true colours – a man who savagely cut the social safety net prior to COVID, who gained favourable reviews for his crisis handling, only by comparison to the tragic comedy in the US – is now is offering a red carpet to profiteers, whose activities only endanger publicly funded healthcare.
Where do the private clinics get their swabs, chemical reagents and staff from? These are needed by the public health system.
If there is capacity in private laboratories and clinics to test, they should be taken over by the public services to carry out tests for all on an equal basis without profit. The backlog of tests must be urgently dealt with and profiteering is not a solution. Already it is clear that poor people are hit harder by COVID as they work in more at-risk occupations, live in more crowded housing and are more likely to travel on public transit. These people are also the “heroes” that keep the country going by their work in care homes and grocery stores, processing and delivering food and other essentials, and cleaning hospitals and other public places. These people should be at the front of the testing line, not the rich and spoiled.
Capitalism turned a virus into a global crisis. Capitalism was a miserable failure in responding to the pandemic, resulting in massive, unnecessary deaths globally. To think that it now offers anything more than a way for the greedy rich to further pad their pockets, is pure, dangerous fantasy.
