An Act to promote patients’ rights and to increase accountability in Ontario’s health care system The Canada Health Act declares that the pri- mary objective of Canadian health care policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada through a public health care system, and as- serts five commanding principles to ensure access to health care services is guaranteed to all without financial or other barriers. Those five principles are accessibility, universality, portability, comprehensiveness, and public administration and funding. Because health care policy in Ontario has the same primary objective with respect to resi- dents of Ontario, access to health care services in Ontario is a social right. It is important to recognize that this primary objective is equally applicable at every stage of life and in every sector of Ontario’s health care system. It is just as important in the growing areas of community services, long- term care and public health information as in more traditional forms of health care delivery in hospitals and physicians’ offices. To ensure equality of access and quality of outcome, it is desirable to extend the five prin- ciples of the Canada Health Act to the deliv- ery of all health care services. It is also desir- able to increase accountability in Ontario’s health care system and to establish the rights and obligations of participants more clearly. — Bill 50 (36th Parliament, 2nd Session)