June 9, 2004

Paying more for health care and getting less

“We believe all Ontarians should have access to medically necessary health care services based on need, not on ability to pay.”

2003 Ontario Liberal election platform

With the introduction of the 2004 Ontario budget, Liberals have turned their back on their much publicized commitment to universal health care  – not only with their regressive, two-tier health tax (remember the McGuinty promise of no new taxes) but also with their regressive, two-tier delisting of vital health services.

Despite paying lip-service to Medicare, the Liberal government will no longer pay for visits to optometrists, chiropractors or physiotherapists.

Optometrists, chiropractors and physiotherapists – and their patients – have been betrayed by a government that has turned it’s back on preventative eye-care, and sentenced people to live with back and muscular pain if they can’t afford access to help.

While the Liberals continue to defend their actions, their move to de-list health services creates a situation where health care is being denied to those who do not have the money to pay for it – that’s called two-tier health care.

This flies in the face of promoting preventative, community-based primary health care services.

Health professionals and their patients question why this government – a government supposedly committed to universally-accessible health care – would now bring in their regressive, two-tier privatization of eye-care, chiropractic and physio services.

I join with the provincial associations of chiropractors, optometrists, and physiotherapists in demanding that this regressive two-tier treatment of key health care services be rescinded. 

The Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA) points out that - in addition to decreasing public access to health care - de-listing chiropractic care is a “short-sighted move that would end up costing the health care system far more money that it would save.”

Over 1.2 million Ontarians – including seniors, middle and low-income earners, and children - depend on chiropractic care for treatment and relief of back and neck pain, headaches, and other musculoskeletal disorders. While government expects to save $93 million by eliminating chiropractic coverage, the OCA argues that, “additional direct costs from patients accessing physicians, emergency departments and drugs will exceed $200 million annually.”

Similarly, President of the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, Christina Boyle, states that de-listing community–based physiotherapy, “will impact particularly on Ontario’s most vulnerable populations, including seniors, the economically disadvantaged and all those who do not have private insurance…it will only place more demands on already overloaded and higher-cost hospital and physician services.”

And the Ontario Association of Optometrists President Dr. Judith Parks says that, “We cannot allow adults with potentially blinding conditions to have to decide whether or not they can afford care,” and asks, “doesn’t this government care if people lose their sight?”

There are many in the weeks following the Liberal budget asking the same questions.

They wonder how it could be that this government would ask them to pay more for health through premiums, and yet receive fewer services.

I encourage all those looking for answers to join the fight to demand the Liberals keep their commitment to universally accessible health care as they told us during the election.  Those interested are invited to pick up petitions at my office to reverse the regressive Liberal move to de-list services.