Health-care cuts force the ill south
It's called "medical tourism." You take your passport and your credit card and you head south of the border for better — or faster — health care than you can get here.
As savvy patients go online to find the best care for what ails them, increasingly there's pressure on OHIP to fund U.S. hospital services — often in private hospitals — from the publicly funded provincial health plan.
Health ministry figures show a decline in patients who are having out-of-country procedures paid for by OHIP.
In 2007-08, 2,463 patients were funded; in 2008-09, that figure was 3,177; 2009-10 it was 3,161. By 2010-11, that figure had dropped to 1,076. The official government line is that because more treatments are available here, patients don't have to look elsewhere. However, over the last two years, about one-third of out of country applications were denied, according to Neala Barton, a spokesperson for Health Minister Deb Matthews.
OHIP doesn't fund experimental treatment or treatment for research, or other procedures "not generally accepted by the medical profession in Ontario as appropriate for a person in the same medical circumstances as the insured person," said Barton.
If the procedure is performed in Ontario by an identical procedure, it's not funded. All the same, there's growing suspicion that the government is tightening up the approval process, so fewer people are able to access care in the U.S.
Part of the problem, says one doctor, is that health care is constantly evolving — and it's tough to stay on the cutting edge. As soon as government cuts the wait time for one diagnostic test, a better test comes along, says Windsor family doctor Dr. Albert Schumacher, former head of the Ontario and Canadian medical associations.
There used to be long wait times for CAT scans.
"In Windsor, you can probably now get one in 72 hours, but of course MRI has now become the gold standard for many things. If you get a neurosurgery consult, the neurosurgeon wants an MRI report attached to the referral. A CAT scan isn't good enough.
Ontario Health Insurance Ohip - News
OHIP doesn't fund experimental treatment or treatment for research, or other procedures "not generally accepted by the medical profession in Ontario as appropriate for a person in the same medical circumstances as the insured person," said Barton.
A Tecumseh, Ont. woman who pleaded guilty to stealing Ontario Health Insurance cheques intended for doctors will serve time in jail.A Tecumseh, Ont. woman who pleaded guilty to stealing Ontario Health Insurance cheques intended for doctors will serve
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RT @: OHIP thief sentenced to jail: A Tecumseh woman who pleaded guilty to stealing Ontario Health Insurance cheques i...
RT @: $400,000 OHIP thief sentenced to jail: A Tecumseh woman who pleaded guilty to stealing Ontario Health Insurance ...