Contents:
Supplementary Health Care
Healthcare System:Supplementary Health Care
Introduction to Supplementary Health Care
With a few exceptions, provincial health plans cover all medically necessary services, so that patients need not pay directly for anything except so-called incidental costs. These incidental costs include items such as a patient's private hospital room, unless it is specified by a physician, and transportation to the hospital. Provincial health plans also do not cover some nonessential procedures, such as laser surgery for the eye, cosmetic surgery, procedures to reverse sterilization, and, in most provinces, in vitro fertilization (IVF). In addition, provinces do not pay for dental services and long-term or special care facilities, such as nursing homes and addiction-recovery centers, with exceptions. Also provinces generally do not cover prescription drugs for patients outside the hospital. Some benefits vary by province: For example, limited chiropractic and optometrist services are covered in Ontario and British Columbia but not in Québec. Although health benefits are portable across provincial boundaries, there is only limited coverage (mainly for emergency care at provincial rates) for Canadians when they travel outside the country.
Canadians have two choices when it comes to paying for these additional services: They can either pay directly for whatever services they use, or they can join a private supplementary insurance plan, usually offered by their employer. Private insurers are not permitted to offer insurance coverage for any service that provincial insurance covers. That restriction is designed to prevent a two-tier system in which people who could afford more expensive private insurance would have greater access to necessary medical services and procedures.
Many provinces subsidize these additional services for the elderly and those who receive social assistance. Several provinces also have government plans that provide insurance coverage for drug costs and that are available to the entire population, but those plans require substantial contributions from the insured.
The practice of extra-billing, in which physicians charge patients a higher fee than that covered by provincial insurance, was common in some provinces. The patients then had to pay the difference between the cost of the service and the amount covered by provincial insurance. The federal government effectively abolished this practice in the Canada Health Act, a law that specifically prohibits extra-billing and penalizes any province that allows it. If a province allows extra-billing, the federal government reduces funding to the province by the amount charged in extra-billing.” (1)
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Notes and References
Guide to Supplementary Health Care
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Legal Citations Generator(2014, 08). Supplementary Health Care lawi.ca Retrieved 06, 2017, from https://lawi.ca/ |
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- Article Name: Supplementary Health Care
- Author: Citations Team
- Description: Healthcare System:Supplementary Health Care Introduction to Supplementary Health Care With a few exceptions, provincial [...]
This entry was last updated: August 24, 2014