The Moral Costs of the Ontario Physicians' Strike

In a strike to permit extra billing, physicians in Ontario sought to balance their concerns for professional autonomy with their primary call to beneficence, but the right to reasonable compensation within a nationalized health care system is not on the same moral plane as the public's right to health care.

Abstract

In a strike to permit extra billing, physicians in Ontario, Canada, sought to balance their concerns for professional autonomy with their primary call to beneficence. But the right to reasonable compensation within a nationalized health care system is not on the same moral plane as the public's right to health care. Having failed to convince either the provincial government or the public of the soundness of their position, Ontario's doctors must now repair the damage done to the relationship with their patients.