The Medical Reform Group is a Canadian organization of physicians and medical students which supports universal public health care. Founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1979 by Drs. Fred Freedman and Gordon Guyatt, it has at times played a significant role in the ongoing debate about Canada's Medicare system and the appropriate role for public funding versus user fees or private insurance.
Among other things, the MRG supports the Canada Health Act, the move away from fee-for-service based practice to salary and/or capitation, a team-based approach to the provision of health services, reproductive choice, rational and cost-effective pharmaceutical prescribing practices, and health care delivery in a not-for-profit setting.
The Medical Reform Group is a democratic organization dedicated to the following three principles:
- Health care is a right. The universal access of every person to high quality, appropriate health care must be guaranteed. the health care system must be administered in a manner which precludes any monetary deterrent to equal care.
- Health is political and social in nature. Health care workers, including physicians, should seek out and recognize the social, economic, occupational, and environmental causes of disease, and be directly involved in their eradication.
- The institutions of the health system must be changed. The health care system should be structured in a manner in which the equally valuable contribution of all health care workers is recognized. Both the public and health care workers should have a direct say in resource allocation and in determining the setting in which health care is provided.
The Medical Reform Group has student chapters at many universities across Canada.