Editor’s Comment Premier Doug Ford of Ontario and his Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Christine Elliott recently introduced a proposal to amend Regulation #552 of the Health Insurance Act of Ontario.This proposed amendment strips all Canadians living in Ontario of any reimbursement for medical expenses incurred outside of Canada. OHIP will now pay NOTHING! This destroys any pretence that the Ontario government will comply with the Canada Health Act, which requires that Ontario pay for out-of-Canada medical expenses at the same rate that would be paid inOntario.This destroys the Portability section of the Canada Health Act, one of the pillars of that legislation. This is a massive mistake! If Ernst and Young really recommended this, they are idiots. So, for you and me, and millions of other travellers, our travel insurance costs just went up by 7.5-15%. People at the older ages, especially, will not be able to afford the new premiums. They will stay home. So the government, in their wisdom, has decided that they would pay for the massive medical expenses for these stay-at-homers, now paid by private insurance.The government now pays about 5%of medical expenses when they are out of Ontario and they are switching that to the government paying 100%, inside Ontario. Are they crazy? Not to belabour the point, but it has been proven that for every 10-degree drop in temperature, the number of serious heart attacks increases by 7%. At a normal 20-degree difference, there are 14%more serious heart attacks. Our snowbirds know this instinctively and that is why we all go south for the winter, if we can afford it. So the Ontario government wants to keep many of these seniors at home, I guess so that they can pay for their heart attacks at 100% instead of 5%. Did we mention ice, and falls and weather-related lung issues? Those are very big numbers, medically speaking. My guess is that OHIP costs inOntario will increase by well over one hundred million dollars. But I thought that they introduced this regulation to cut costs?! This was a knee-jerk reaction to a suggestion made by someone who knew nothing about what they were talking about. This is not Ford or Elliott; they are very smart people.They are just two very, very busy people who never had a chance to think it through. Now you can. We request that you immediately throw out the Regulation #552 Amendment. My recommendation would be to increase the hospital day reimbursement to $1,200 per day from the current $400 per day. This would permit a 5-10% reduction in insurance premiums, get more people travelling in the winter months and save OHIP a fortune. HOW COULD YOU ??? P.S: Just so you know, the government said that 99.5% of Ontarians will NOT be affected. What nonsense! Of the 14.32 million people in Ontario, 12.26 million trips were taken OUTSIDE OF CANADA, just in the first nine months of 2018. This affects almost every single person in Ontario. NOW YOU CAN FIX EVERYTHING! AND comply with The Canada Health Act! CSANews | SPRING 2019 | 7
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