{"id":11133,"date":"2015-06-24T13:47:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T17:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11133"},"modified":"2015-07-02T11:31:57","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T15:31:57","slug":"politics-as-usual-costs-of-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-costs-of-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Costs of Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

I attended a fundraiser recently for a beautiful little girl who is battling cancer.
\nThe event was necessary to help raise funds to pay for some of the drugs, hotel stays, travel \u2013 the hidden costs of cancer care that are not covered by our current system.
\nThough our healthcare system is wonderful, there are glaring gaps in coverage that can have significant health and economic impacts. When you are in hospital, the drugs and assistive devices are covered under OHIP. Similarly, emergency dental work \u2013 if done in a hospital \u2013 is covered. It\u2019s when you need to go home that the problem arises.
\nMany of us have some kind of drug plan and dental coverage either through our employers or through a private plan, if self-employed. For those with coverage, picking up your bottle of penicillin to cure your child\u2019s bronchitis, or going to the dentist for a regular cleaning, are not cause for concern.
\nYou may have to pay a small portion of the cost, but a significant amount will be covered, and some plans cover it all.
\nBut what if you don\u2019t have coverage, or can\u2019t afford to pay for private coverage? Eyeglasses, hearing aids, braces, dental fillings, and physiotherapy \u2013 common health related expenses can quickly add up if you don\u2019t have coverage.
\nMany people have no coverage at all. They can\u2019t go to the dentist even once a year let alone the recommended every 6 months. They can\u2019t go to physiotherapy after an accident. They can\u2019t get the drugs they need in order to fight off infections. Even those battling cancer may not get all the drugs they need unless they can pay for them themselves.
\nYes, there are options if you don\u2019t have coverage. However, you have to meet the criteria.
\nAccording to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term care, the following folks are able to get coverage: Seniors (over 65), those in a long-term care home or home for special care, those enrolled in a home care program, those who have high drug costs relative to income and are registered with the Trillium Drug Program and\/or you receive social assistance through Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program.
\nIn other words, a small group of people would qualify \u2013 and that does not appear to include the lower middle to middle class(though I am not clear what \u201cmiddle\u201d class even means these days).
\nAssuming you meet the criteria, there are still further restrictions. Close to 4,000 prescription drugs are covered, but many are not, nor are \u201c\u2026syringes and other diabetic supplies such as lancets and glucometers, eyeglasses, dentures, hearing aids, or compression stockings.\u201d Your insulin may be covered, but the syringes are not.
\nWhat about a trip to the dentist? Forget it. Again, unless you meet a very narrow set of criteria or you have some kind of emergency, then you are out of luck \u2013 and out of pocket. OHIP covers dental work done in hospitals. Emergency care is covered, preventative care is not, despite the fact that Ontario\u2019s own Medical Officer of Health stressed the vital importance of oral health in overall long term health.
\nWhen health care is discussed, the focus is always on access to hospitals \u2013 more beds, more nurses, more technology. That is desperately needed to be sure, but what about when you go home? If you don\u2019t have the drugs or assistive therapy you need to fully recover, you\u2019re going to end up back where you started \u2013 in a hospital. And what about dental care? If you have to wait until your tooth rots to get dental care and end up in surgery instead, how is that cost-effective?
\nThe focus of health care debates should be about equitable access to health care and how best to fund it. It may be wonderful to have an MRI to sort out your wonky elbow after a fall, but if you can\u2019t afford the brace and follow-up physiotherapy needed to fix it, then what the heck is the point?
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is – after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas I attended a fundraiser recently for a beautiful little girl who is battling cancer. The event was necessary to help raise funds to pay for some of the drugs, hotel stays, travel \u2013 the hidden costs of cancer care that are not covered by our current system. Though our healthcare system is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Tz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 04:09:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}