Cross-Border Care is an investigative series that highlights the extent to which not only Ontario residents, but the provincial government itself, have come to rely on the United States to provide timely and state-of-the-art health care.
The eye-opening three-part series is the inaugural effort of Metroland Media Group's new special investigative projects team, of which York Region Media Group's own Joe Fantauzzi was a member.
While we will always focus on our local community in our pages, this special project means, several times a year, you'll also read top-notch, hard-hitting investigative series on topics of a scope that have provincial - if not national - impact.
It's a "priceless" benefit of being a reader of a community newspaper produced by Metroland, the largest news-gathering operation in Ontario and one of the largest in Canada.
We begin with a bang with Cross-Border Care, which tells the story of thousands of Ontarians stuck at the back of the line - and of the thousands more unwilling, or simply unable, to wait any longer for diagnosis and treatment.
This month, nearly 140,000 people are on wait lists for CT scans and MRIs.
Billions of dollars are poured into health care - $11 billion in Ontario and $183 billion in Canada this year - yet most of us have real experience with the chaos in the system.
For me, it was watching my Dad wait weeks to see a specialist to confirm he needed a new hip. Then came months of discomfort and pain and an active lifestyle put on hold. Six long months later, he had hip replacement surgery.
For me, it was also helplessly watching a co-worker's health decline with heartbreaking speed as he waited nearly three months to see a cancer specialist.
Wait lists that stretch for months, unavailable procedures and technology and limited access to physicians are the everyday realities of health care in Ontario.
We know there are problems - and have accepted this. Accepted it to the point that, last year, 12,000 of us willingly crossed the border to pay for the care we once thought would be there for us when we needed it.
After reading our series - after seeing the numbers on the scope of the crisis, after hearing the stories of people affected - I think you'll agree it's time to demand accountability and action from the province.
OHIP approval for out-of-country care has skyrocketed 450 per cent in 10 years, partly because the province has lost step with advances in technology and therapies.
No surprise then that Ontario's spending on out-of-country medical care has tripled in five years - to $164 million in 2010. Ontario became a bulk buyer of health services with 40 American providers this year.
What may have been a temporary solution for "at risk" patients sounds as if it's becoming an entrenched practice. Why isn't the money being invested here, so we can start to tackle the problem here?
That we bicker about "two-tier" health care and the ability to "constitutionally" access care and services outside of the publicly funded system within our own country seems farcical based on facts compiled in today's story.
While the province has made strides in reducing waits for a few priority procedures, a 2009 Ontario Health Quality Council report says it's not good enough: "Many Ontarians still wait too long for urgent cancer surgery, MRI scans and specialists."
The dirty secret is out. Shovelling more and more Ontario taxpayers' dollars across the border, and forcing more and more desperate residents to pay for care themselves, has to stop.
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