Health Care Privatization in British Columbia

Fact Sheet, BC Health Coalition, Feb. 2005

Definition: Privatization is the transfer of public assets or services from public ownership and control to private ownership and control.

Why Not Privatize? Who Loses?
As a public good, health care should be managed for social needs and not for short-term profit. When public necessities like health care are privatized, the public loses.

Who Benefits?
The goal of for-profit companies is to make maximum profit and that profit has to come
from somewhere. For a private company to provide health services at the same cost as
the public system, profit margins must come at the expense of standards of patient care, wages, and working conditions.