It’s abundantly clear our government and specifically our Health Minister, Christine Elliot is totally out to lunch on this matter. When it comes to matters of health, it would be far better to have someone with even a modicum of health experience instead of someone who happened to have a health crisis that apparently makes the Premier and her think she’s an expert. Unfortunately, since they got elected, this government has seen fit to rule like bulls in a china shop and they are proving themselves much more destructive than the proverbial bull.
If your glasses are more than a year old and they break, you are totally screwed thanks to the idiots at the helm of our provincial government. Given we don’t have an over abundance of ophthalmologists in this province, it will take months to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist who will get paid considerably more than what the optometrists are asking for. Good luck with that given so many people in this province don’t even have a family doctor and there is a NOT a glut of ophthalmologists waiting to take on all of the patients optometrists have been servicing. If the optometrists withdraw services, children, the disabled and seniors only option for eye exams or eye issues that crop up between checkups, will be to get a referral from your family doctor to an ophthalmologist. It looks to me like many people are totally missing the point here. More than four-million eye care services are delivered each year across Ontario. “Literally every optometrist has a story where they’ve looked inside someone’s eyes and recommended they get blood work and, boom, they find out they have diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis… We’re also able to manage diseases like glaucoma and macular degeneration.” “I think the biggest problem is the government doesn’t understand what optometrists do,” Dr. She says some people think eye care is only about glasses and contact lenses. They’re not answering our calls or emails.”
“What we’re asking for is just for them to agree to a formal negotiation process… Right now, they’re not even willing to meet with us. “We’re not asking for a lot from the government,” she explained. Lee says the lack of a formal process “makes it easy for the government to ignore” eye care. Unlike other health professionals, optometrists have never been able to access a formal negotiation process with the government.ĭr. “Optometrists are being fair and reasonable: we ask only that government commit to cover at least the cost of service delivery, and we’re giving them lots of notice to avoid any impact on patients,” he explained. Sheldon Salaba says the current budget is “undervaluing the eye health of Ontarians.” If nothing changes by the fall, OHIP patients will effectively be locked out, since it is illegal for optometrists to accept private insurance or out-of-pocket payments for these services, even if they want to.Īfter the latest provincial budget passed with no mention of eye care, 96 per cent of OAO members voted to withdraw OHIP services. “OHIP fees are actually paid to an office… the doctor only gets a portion of the exam, but right now the fees are not even enough to cover our costs.” Lee says it is a common misconception that OHIP payments are used toward doctor’s salaries. They say those costs add up quickly, since seven out of ten patients are covered by OHIP, including those under 20, 65 and older or with specific medical conditions.ĭr. Under the current budget, the Ontario Association of Optometrists (OAO) says doctors are required to absorb 45 per cent of exam costs for OHIP patients. Overhead costs also depend on where an optometrist is located. Lee, the average eye exam costs around $88, even before paying the doctor. “That $44 is just not enough for us to keep paying our staff a living wage, cover our rent and all of our expenses,” Dr. “In 1989 paid about $39 per exam and today, over 30 years later, they only cover an average of about $44 per exam.” “The funding has just not kept up with the rising cost of goods,” she explained. Claudia Lee says the government’s payments don’t even begin to cover expenses. That’s according to Ontario’s optometrists, who say the provincial government is refusing to negotiate with them on the cost of eye exams. Kids, seniors and families covered by OHIP could lose all access to eye care this September.
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