(La traduction fançaise peut être touvée dans notre 1ère mise à jour)

Bill96 has wide-ranging implications on the economy, business, judicial system, education and other domains that impact Quebecers’ social determinants of health.

Quebec members of the national assembly have stated that Bill96 will not impact health-care delivery in languages outside of French, but the bill does not explicitly exclude health services. As such, this will severely compromise medical care quality for all Quebecers and places health care workers in a compromising position professionally and financially between their government and certifying bodies. Research has proven that multilingualism is crucial, with a recent study demonstrating that allophones had a 54% lower chance of death when treated by a physician in their own language.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed systemic flaws in Quebec’s health care system:

1. A 7th COVID wave and more deaths at the halfway point of 2022 then all of 2021.
2. 12.3% of hospitalized patients no longer requiring hospital services (June 2022), above the government’s 8% mandate.
3. An ambulance shortage resulting in the death of Thérèse Pardiac just before services  arrived 7 hours later.

Bill96 would setback a fragile system and expose it to increasing financial and human costs. Quebecers agree that “compassion should be the only language of health”; with 57% stating that the bill should be amended.

Bill96’s impacts in all domains, and in particular the health-care sector, should be re-examined.

This subject is further explored in this publication available in 14 languages: https://healthydebate.ca/2022/07/topic/bill-96-quebec-health-care/