Why OHIP Sucks

For those of you non Ontarians out there, OHIP is the Ontario Health Insurancne Plan. That is, inescapable government insurance.

There are two ways it sucks.

OHIP sucks in theory because I have always had to pay for it while never making any claims or recieving any benefits. If I'm not costing the system any money nor planning to in the near future, I should at least be able to opt out of it.

OHIP sucks in practice because now I actually have a legitimate health issue that I want to gain the help of a professional in addressing. I want to visit a podiatrist and get custom orthotics. Not an outlandish or rare problem. OHIP covers pennies on the dollar of the doctor visit and exactly $0 of the orthotics, which cost hundreds of dollars themselves.

For example, if a consultation with a podiatrist costs $99, OHIP covers about $16. Why would the government of Ontario insult me with $16? Just say you don't cover it rather than giving me a $20 bill when it costs $100!!

I figured that since I can't get out of paying the bill I might as well get some use out of the servicce I finally could use, but apparently my medical issue is inelligible. Yet I'm still paying hundreds of dollars for people to take their kids to the ER when they have a skinned knee or a cold. Lovely.

I will say this..
OHIP is there for when you really need it. You don't know when that will happen, or how serious a health issue you may have in the future.
I thank god that I can take my kids to the ER if they need stitches, or when I gave birth to them, or when my parents needed cancer treatment.
My finances would not allow for me to pay for any extended care, and Murphy's law dictates that if you had to pay for a doctor's visit, you would only get sick when you were broke.
Have you looked into how much health care costs elsewhere?
People have to re-mortgage their homes to pay hospital bills, or go without when they need it the most.
Would you be willing to pay 150 bucks a month or more for health insurance in the US?
I'll take my health care system any day over the alternative.

reply to post by AccessDenied


But you see...

OHIP isn't there when I really need it. I could actually use it but it doesn't cover what I need. Do you see the problem here? I was forced to pay but got nothing in return.

If I didn't have to pay exhorbitant taxes - that would be 50 cents of every dollar earned in Ontario in income, property, sales, and local taxes - I could very easily afford real health insurance that actually covers my own health rather than everyone else's. But instead I have to either buy additional insurance to cover what OHIP doesn't, or pay for it out of pocket.

If you have a problem that isn't covered by OHIP you're worse off than if you had no government health insurance at all because you're forced to pay twice.

Just out of curiosity what do people in Ontario pay for OHIP now, when I left 17yrs ago it wasn't costing us a nickle, I live in Alberta now and it costs about 30 a month for family coverage, and as of Jan 1 2009 there is no fee,I understand where you are coming from, I have asked myself the same question for 25yrs, you need to have the extended benefits to really have full coverage and that will run you about 60 to 90 dollars extra each month, the best thing about Canada's universal health care is that if you ever have a serious health issue, cancer, heart attack or even child birth you will be looked after and will not be denied or charged a fee. Its not perfect, unfortunately.

We still pay nothing.
Sometimes we all don't realize how lucky we are.:shk: