Hospital parking fees

I support free hospital parking for patients. I would probably also support free transport to and from hospital visits, reimbursement for time lost from work due to hospital visits, and reimbursement for myriad of ancillary costs that hospital visits generate. That’s the easy part. The hard part is knowing where to draw the line and who picks up the tab? Dr. Kale proposes that hospitals absorb the cost.1 They certainly could, but at what price? If the Ottawa Hospital no longer generated the “small sum” of $10.8 million from its parking revenues, it would have to find $10.8 million worth of services to reduce or eliminate. Will the hospital then be more patient-centric? This was the reason such a proposal was defeated in England. No one was lining up with their chequebook to pick up the tab. If the objective of your editorial1 is to provoke a larger debate about user fees, Godspeed. Your proposed remedy will not make our hospitals more patient-centric, but it will appeal to the media and the politician looking for a populist quick-fix.