Privatization and Health Care: The Case of Ontario Nursing Homes

The surge of privatization in Canada threatens the social security network that has been carefully built over the years. People are asking, What will this mean for ‘human’ services in the future? Will the same service be forthcoming under privatized health care as that to which we have become accustomed under a publicly owned system?

These are some of the questions that Vera Ingrid Tarman examines in this timely new book. After carefully laying out the boundaries and the theoretical issues surrounding the private versus public debate, she then uses nursing homes in Ontario as a case study to illustrate the impact of privatization. A careful reading of this book will help us to understand what some of our most cherished institutions will look like under a profit oriented private system.