In June I, along with CSA o cials, met with Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott to discuss the government’s planned elimination of the Out-of-Country Travellers Program which provides reimbursement to eligible OHIP enrollees for emergency illnesses, conditions or injuries which are acute, unexpected, arose outside of Canada and require immediate treatment. e Ford government, a er a consultation period of exactly four business days, announced that the program would be discontinued on October 1, 2019. As we have said from day one, our biggest concern is that the elimination of this program will ultimately increase premiums for private travel medical insurance coverage. We completely understand the need for scal responsibility at the provincial level. However, we are of the view that the elimination of this programwill have the opposite e ect. By increasing the price of private insurance, the Ontario government is making it more expensive for travellers to be su ciently covered for their trips outside of the country. If travel insurance prices continue to rise, this will prevent a signi cant number of seniors, particularly in the older age brackets, to obtain the necessary coverage and travel abroad. Unfortunately, some of those senior travellers who must now stay home will require emergency medical attention in Ontario… thus putting an even-higher burden on the provincial medical system. e cost of emergency medical care for those individuals will now be paid 100% by the Ontario government. If the same emergency were to occur outside of Canada, the government would be responsible for approximately 6% of the overall health costs. In her 2018 report, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk did not suggest eliminating this program. She simply noted that the government administration of the program was poorly done and that they should “revisit opportunities to reduce administrative costs” which, by the way, is exactly what we also recommended. is is a $9-million government program that costs $2.8 million to administer. Yes, that is de nitely ine cient administration and those costs could be substantially reduced by simply adopting a single reimbursement rate for all emergency health services obtained out of the country. Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor noted that the Ford government’s proposal will make Ontario the only jurisdiction in the country to provide absolutely no coverage for emergency hospital and physician services received out of the country. Subsequent to that statement, the Ontario government agreed to continue to provide limited coverage for renal dialysis patients when travelling abroad. ey have also agreed to delay the elimination of the Outof-Country Travellers Programuntil January 1, 2020. Finally, it’s important to remember that this proposal will not only impact the snowbird community who travel south for the winter, it will also a ect cross-border shoppers and Ontarians simply planning family vacations. Premier Ford never misses an opportunity to remind us that his government is “for the people.” Hard-working Ontarians who simply want a break and are able to get away for a few days, weeks or even months during retirement will soon be paying more to spend that time with their family and friends. I suspect that many of the tens of thousands of travelling Ontario seniors who have saved their money, paid their taxes and played by the rules for their entire lives will remember this come election day. e Doug Ford Travel Tax becomes a reality on January 1, 2020. On October 21, 2019, Canadian voters will yet again go to the polls and elect a new federal government. CSA sta are once again working to produce our popular Federal Election Handbook. We want to ensure that our members have the tools you need to e ectively question your local candidates when they knock on your door looking for your vote. As always, these handbooks are loaded with lots of very useful voting information, including dates of advance polls, absentee ballot information, voter identi cation requirements, etc. Our goal is always to make this a handy, one-stop-shopping tool covering all of your election day needs. is year, we are going to send the handbook to you via e-mail and we will also post it on our website at www.snowbirds.org. We are attempting to make this available to you by the third week of September. If for any reason you do not receive it, please contact us at the o ce and we will ensure that you receive a copy. We have been told that the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act will be reintroduced in the United States Senate shortly a er the August recess. Between attempting to advance this in Washington and engaging our Canadian o cials prior to the federal election, we anticipate a very busy fall at the Canadian Snowbird Association. Safe travels and hopefully, Bill and I will see you somewhere down the road. President’s Message Karen Huestis CSA President 12 | www.snowbirds.org
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