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Despite annual hikes of 6% in health transfers from Ottawa since 2004, Ontario has categorically failed to get a handle on escalating budgets.

It would be pleasant to think the situation was really that cut and dried. Yes, many doctors are upset at the OMA, and the deal it cut in secretive talks then dropped on its members as a fait accompli. But they are also agitated at the treatment they get from the government, and the attitude it displays to health professionals. While teachers’ unions are coddled at every turn, treated to millions of dollars in under-the-counter subsidies in gratitude for the millions the unions pour into pro-Liberal ad campaigns, the doctors are portrayed as greedy and out of touch.

Referring to the doctors’ rejection of a four-year deal that would have increased the fee budget by 2.5% a year, Hoskins lamented: “We’ve been told that’s not enough, so what is? Five per cent a year? Ten per cent? … Those on the other side of this argument will need to tell us what they think constitutes a fair increase.”

It wasn’t the first time Hoskins has intimated that the men and women who work to keep Ontarians healthy are a bunch of money-grubbers. In April he released figures indicating more than 500 doctors billed the province for more than $1 million in fees in 2014-15. The biggest individual bill came it at $6.6 million. It’s a lot of money, and if there’s fraud or undue exploitation going on, it should unquestionably be addressed. But the billing anomalies are concentrated heavily in three specialist categories where technological changes have had major impacts, and represent a minor portion of Ontario’s annual $11.5 billion fee budget. Rather than deal with that issue, Hoskins prefers to tar all doctors with one brush.