Does Ontario already have a two-tier health-care system?

In today’s Big Story podcast, if you, like millions of people in Canada — two million in Ontario alone — do not have a family doctor, the prospect of paying hundreds of dollars for the services they provide might be something you’d consider, assuming you were able to afford it. That’s the demand that has “nurse practitioner clinics” springing up across the province, fuelling accusations that Ontario is hurtling towards a Pay For Access system.

Richard Southern, a Queen’s Park reporter for CityNews, says one Toronto clinic is charging as much as $1,200 for a yearly membership.

“It seemed a bit egregious but the more we dug into it, we found out this is actually something that is legal in Ontario,” says Southern.  

So how are these clinics able to charge exorbitant fees when health care is supposed to be free? How did we end up here? And is this really the road Ontario’s health-care system is headed down?