The Ford government has defeated an Ontario Liberal-led effort to stop nurse practitioners from being able to charge for health-care services, insisting it wants to end the practice but that Ottawa must address it before Ontario can act.
During a vote on Monday morning, the government defeated Ontario Liberal MPP Adil Shamji’s plan to ban charges levied by health-care professionals.
More than a dozen private health clinics led by nurse practitioners started offering services in Ontario this year — from urgent appointments to treat minor ailments to more in-depth mental assessments — for fees that averaged hundreds of dollars.
A database of clinics, compiled by the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario, shows more than 30 locations in the province as of late 2023.
While the Canada Health Act lays the groundwork for how medically necessary services are paid for under the country’s single-payer model, nurse practitioners are treated as employees within the health-care system rather than independent operators.
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