Doug Ford announced this week that his government would no longer cover the cost of health insurance for Ontarians who travel abroad. The coverage, as of now, is pretty flimsy. Tom Walkom writes:
An Ontarian requiring emergency outpatient hospital care while travelling outside Canada, for instance, is entitled to be reimbursed by OHIP at the rate of only $50 a day. That figure hasn’t increased in 20 years.
Overall, the current out-of-country rates paid by OHIP are chintzy. An Ontarian requiring hospitalization abroad can receive up to $200 a day ($400 in intensive care). Manitoba, Nova Scotia and the three territories are more generous. So is Prince Edward Island. It will pay up to $1,423 per day for a citizen needing emergency hospital care outside of Canada.
None of this suffices to cover U.S. hospital costs, which can amount to $4,000 a day or more. That’s why so many Canadians who travel in the U.S. choose to buy supplementary private insurance.
As a result, the proportion paid by public insurance — by OHIP — continues to decline. It now represents only five per cent of the cost of a typical medical emergency abroad.
But the issue isn't payments. It's portability:
Canadian medicare is, in essence, an insurance plan. Those who live in this country are automatically covered by their provincial medicare programs when they use physician or hospital services anywhere inside or outside of Canada.
This is known as portability. In the case of those who are “temporarily absent” from the country, the Canada Health Act reads as follows:
“Where the insured services are provided out of Canada, payment is made on the basis of the amount that would have been paid by the province for similar services rendered in the province.”
So Ford is attacking -- directly -- the Canada Health Act. Will he invoke the Not Withstanding Clause? Who knows? But his latest move confirms that, rather than being what he claims -- a Progressive Conservative -- he's a confirmed knuckle-dragger.
Image: Wiktionary
14 comments:
Owen, I love your picture, but isn't the conflation with Ford a bit of an insult to gorillas?
Indeed, Lorne, I may have slandered gorillas.
Frankly, the cost of US health care is a good reason to stay out of that country; the risk is too high. Just about anywhere else has reasonable health care costs. Maybe our governments should advise Canadians against travel to the US.
Universal health care should be a right. Ford is being mean.
Well, Ford is certainly screwing Ontario except when it comes to beer. Fifty years ago I went as a grad student to England, and discovered the off-licence. These are privately owned stores that flog liquor, er spirits, wine and beer of all kinds plus all the requisite munchies. For some unknown reason the elites that run Canada assume the citizens will run wild if they can access booze wherever and whenever it suits them. Can't have that - what about peace, order and good government? Ford probably thinks he's sticking it to the Man. Unfortunately, to him the Man seems to be defined as the common peon in all other areas of governance. How he must chortle dementedly, cackling like a loon as he shows how ungenerous he can be with everyone but his pals.
I do not envy the residents of Ontario living under the charge of this buffoon.
BM
Mean is Ford's MO, Toby.
Your lack of envy is well placed, BM.
I live in BC, Owen, and at one time we would be covered when travelling without having to purchase private insurance. However, once US hospitals decided they could "hose" our socialized medical coverage and started charging ridiculous amounts such as $20 for one Kleenex, the government of BC decided we would be required to purchase out of province medical coverage from private insurance companies.
It didn't take me long to figure out that even though we have legislation that says you are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of age - it is obvious that private insurance of any type is totally exempt from this law. When I purchase this required insurance, and at my age (retired) it is close to $4000. for 90 days. Private insurance also requires me to have valid provincial medical coverage before they will sell me their private plan. They do this because the provinces refund to the private insurance company, whatever amount they would have paid had I needed that medical assistance while at home.
Unfortunately, most folks in my age group tend to head to the southern US for a winter break, and despite their claim to be just the finest and best democracy in the world, they are also the most expensive country in the world for any kind of health care.
Unfortunately, it seems that -- in the U.S. -- there's a perception that the best of anything costs lots of money, Lulymay.
He’s got to make the system as lean as he can for the privatizers. It’s much too extravagant as it stands. That’s what they told him. Expectations must be reduced in advance of the introduction of the makeshift basic private plans that will be on offer because of the comparisons that the public will inevitably make. I think they’re already screwing up the rollout. This was a stupid move for all the savings it would fetch in relation to the negative attention it will attract. He probably never heard of the Canada Health Act. Somebody should have told him about it.
This may take longer than we thought it would. Maybe we can find a distiller that can make a fifty-cent shot of whiskey for the tailgate parties. We’ll get them to put enough alcohol in it to kill the bugs in the tainted meat.
I usually hate Ford's policies, but I actually think he's onto something here. No provincial government reimburses foreign medical claims at anything close to what they pay for "similar services rendered in the province." Nor should they.
Go to a physician in another country and OHIP pays $17.75 toward your bill. A stay in hospital gets you a paltry $200-$400/day from OHIP. In the US or Mexico, hospital room charges alone start at about $1,200/day, before any diagnostic testing or treatment is done. And the provinces won't pay anything toward ambulance fees, drugs or repatriation costs, which is why only the most foolhardy travel without private insurance.
What the provinces are actually doing is subsidizing private insurers. As Lulymay correctly points out, they're the ones collecting these refunds. I'd rather see the provinces put the savings toward improving public healthcare here in Canada.
Cap
The reference to tainted meat is a reminder of Walkerton, John. I suspect that the damage from these decisions will be evident shortly. And the smell of rot will be overpowering.
The financial payments are paltry, Cap. But there is also the question of portability -- without the country and within.
.. I find Doug Ford seems to operate from an undisclosed personal 'ideology' .. I often describe him as 'GLIB'.. and by my definition, 'glib' means you can talk and explain away, in public.. in unique and deceptive ways. Its usually endlessly rehearsed, repeated dogma of course. its just polished lying through your teeth. Now that's a highly prized capability in partisan circles of confusion.. or as they claim these days - its 'Leadership'
I'd prefer to see Doug Ford in a federal and grander political context / environment.. among his peers. Like Pierre Poilievre, Or Denise Batters, Tom Flanagan or Ken Boessenkool, Jason Kenney and Andrew Scheer, Ray Novak & Stephen Harper, Tony Clement.. where he's up there spouting and spewing.. from a higher pulpit and easier to skewer. He's The Man Who Wouldn't Plant Trees.. sadly, he's a holier than thou, waste of oxygen.. a self promoting 'smartest guy in the room' AssHat.. He needs to be in the same room as the rest of his sneering posturing peers, who all believe they're the annointed one..
You're right, sal. Ford is the latest in a long line of people who refuse to believe the evidence before their eyes. Those that follow him believe what he says because they want to believe what he says, regardless of the evidence -- which is all around -- to the contrary.
Post a Comment