Metroland special report makes waves at Legislature

TORONTO -- Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews says she's doing her best to bring down a "dramatic increase" in out-of-country health care funded by the provincial health insurance plan.

Ms. Matthews was responding Thursday in the Ontario legislature to a question from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath about Metroland's Special Report on Cross Border Care.

The Metroland series shows a 450 per cent increase in OHIP approvals for out-of-country care since 2001, when the government funded 2,110 procedures or treatments, compared with 11,775 last year.

The Metroland investigation also shows Ontario's spending on out-of-Canada medical services tripled in the last five years, to an estimated $164.3 million for 2010, from $56.3 million in 2005.

The out-of-country funding by OHIP is supposed to provide Ontarians with a safety net when they can't immediately find proper care in Ontario. Instead, Ms. Horwath said in the legislature, more and more Ontario patients are going across the border for basic care, such as MRIs.

"The reality is that Ontarians are facing cuts to their local hospitals, to beds, to staff, to services, and even entire emergency rooms," she said. "Patients are losing access to local care as the McGuinty government shells out more money to private American providers."

Ms. Matthews told the legislature it's true "there has been a dramatic increase in out-of-country health care. We are very focused on bringing that number back down."

Christine Elliott, Progressive Conservative health critic, said in an interview the province "should be taking a look at our health care system from top to bottom to see what we can do to make sure that people are able to stay in Ontario for their treatments."

Ms. Elliott, the MPP for Whitby-Oshawa, said out-of-country spending "is not doing anything to benefit our overall health care system here." She said that while "it's helping individuals, and that's good, to get the relief they need, it's far preferable to be able to have that health care delivered in this province."

Elizabeth Witmer, former PC health critic and Kitchener-Waterloo MPP, also called for a review of the entire health system, saying: "This is urgent. The needs to happen right now."

"We need to stop the flood of people going not just to the United States, because I hear from people who go to India and Europe and they pay for it themselves," Ms. Witmer added.