Group Health Centre broke its promise to steelworkers: union president

As one of thousands of unionized Algoma Steel employees in the 1960s, current USW Local 2251 president Mike Da Prat contributed to the fund responsible for building the Group Health Centre. Da Prat says his contribution, and the contributions of his fellow members, came with a promise: that worker and retiree health care needs would always be looked after.  

That promise was broken, said Da Prat, when he and countless other local steelworkers, retirees and other community members in Sault Ste. Marie received letters in the mail this week informing them they would be among the 10,000 patients being cut from the roster at Group Health Centre, effective May 31, and no longer welcome to seek out services there.

"We had all the documents that were sent out to the members to convince them to to participate rather than stay with with the insurance company, and that was retirees would have free health care for their natural lives. That was the commitment," Da Prat told SooToday in an interview on Thursday about the original promises made to attract thousands of steelworkers from a number of unions to sign on to the plan to build the Group Health Centre.

Da Prat said he does not agree with Group Health's current decision to de-roster patients based on who their doctor is and when they retire.

"If we're in a position of the de-rostering, the retirees and the people that were members at a time when we had to pay to build it — they're the ones that should not be getting displaced. It should not be a function of: if you were with a certain doctor that doctor retired, so sad too bad, you're gone," he said. "We're members of the Group Health, not members of doctor so-and-so."

Da Prat said members who have been de-rostered will not be able to see a doctor or attend the Group Health Centre's same-day clinic once the May 31 deadline passes.

"They say we can have other services but the other services require a doctor. So for instance, if I need an x-ray, I need a doctor to request the X-ray. I can't frickin' do it," said Da Prat. "So basically they're throwing us out of the building and that's not right."

The issue of doctors retiring has always been there, said Da Prat, but patients were not de-rostered as a result. They were reassigned a new doctor.

The physicians who are of retirement age often have long-time patients on their rosters within the Group Health Centre and as a result, many retirees and older workers are not just losing their doctor, but also their ability to use services within the same walls they helped to build.

"What about colonoscopies? What about tests for for prostate cancer? What about breast screening? What about all of that?" asked Da Prat. "And they're all people that are high risk. Many of them are seniors."

When it opened in 1963, the Group Health Centre was Canada's first consumer-sponsored prepaid group practice. Da Prat said steelworkers helped to raise over $800,000 to build the centre, an investment he estimates would be worth about $8 million today.

Aside from the "first brickers" who contributed funds, steelworker members of the day accepted a lower wage in exchange for their coverage. Those steelworkers were not just backers of the project, they also had representation on the Group Health Association board, with a voice on the decisions that were made around that table.

Da Prat said steelworkers eventually ceased participating on the GHA board after a second board was created, the Group Health Centre Board of Directors.

"There were all kinds of issues with that because the GHC board would be would be the decision maker and the GHA board had all the liability," said Da Prat. "Because the GHA is responsible for all the support staff all the equipment the buildings and everything, if there was a decision made by the GHC board which resulted in costs, such as inappropriate determinations or whatever, then the GHA board would be on the hook. So we walked away."

The Group Health Centre had already been in operation for a few years when Da Prat started working at Algoma Steel in late 1960s, but at the time contributing to the building fund was a condition of employment.

"Our position is that the people are members and if members are going to be released, then it should be in order of when they entered and what participation they had with the Group Health, right?" said Da Prat.

"It was originally developed for steelworkers and then it was it was expanded to allow other people in," he added. "We shared it, we did not give it away."

Da Prat said a number of affected unions are working together to seek a legal opinion about what can be done to reverse the decision before the damage is done. They also plan to pen a letter to Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"I think it's absolutely wrong that people are getting orphaned. They were given the assurance that they would have health care for free post-retirement," said Da Prat. "You had to either be an original bricker or you have to be a member for 15 years before you would get that free."

"Then to have it eliminated in this manner is absolutely inappropriate," he added. "Somebody broke the promise that was made."

Through the letter, the unions will urge higher levels of government to treat the situation in Sault Ste. Marie as a health care crisis. Da Prat said it is far too late to convene a commission to look into the issue, as has been suggested by MPP Ross Romano. 

"Anything that they're gonna come up with now is long range," said Da Prat. "What we need is people to go out and recruit healthcare professionals globally. Give them a fast track to Canadian citizenship. Bring them into the country and enough with this nonsense about having to work as a taxi driver for 10 years until they can get certified in Canada."