Dr. Shill

Have you ever considered buying insurance to offset the high cost of doctor visits?

Have you considered buying insurance from you doctor?

Apparently some doc's are peddling insurance to cover the cost of their fee's . . . in Canada.

So what happened to free health care?

Apparently free isn't good enough.

In Ontario you can buy pet care insurance, but not health insurance. But it appears things are about to change.

Since 2000 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has approved a health care insurance vehicle for administration, quaintly referring to it as a ‘block fee’. As a result, Ontarians can purchase insurance that will cover their doctor’s notes stating that they are too ill to attend work because they are waiting on a list to get treatment.

So you can't buy health insurance but you can bribe your doc to say you are too sick to work.

What kind of system is that?

What they can’t buy is insurance that will cover the actual care needed. This is because most medical treatments are covered by OHIP, when and if a service is finally performed.

When and if . . . a service is finally performed.

That's reassuring.

The doctor selling his own private insurance product lists 23 administrative services for which he charges fees ranging from $11.72 at the low end for telephone prescription renewals to the high end of $150 for the filling out of forms for a physical required for a driver’s license.

Buying insurance for an $11.72 item.

Of course that is in Canadian dollars . . .

The marketing and price plan are clever giving consumers a choice between the premium family insurance plan at $130 per year covering all 24 categories instead or an individual standard insurance plan of $65 per year which covers 7 categories of uninsured services.

At $65 - $130 per year I can't imagine the docs getting rich off this.

Nor can I imagine why someone would pay a premium to buy this kind of coverage.

I would think there are much bigger issues . . . like wait times.