MDs Going Private At Faster Rate In Quebec

In contrast, Ontario stopped allowing doctors to opt out of medicare in 2004, and since then the number has dropped to 45 from 121. And unlike Quebec, Ontario patients paying out of pocket to be seen by a private physician are reimbursed for "medically necessary" services by that province's medicare board. Ontario closed the opting-out provision even though the province has more than 25,000 physicians and a smaller shortage of specialists, per capita, than Quebec. In this province, those opting out in the past have been mostly plastic surgeons performing facelifts and breast augmentations, as well as ophthalmologists doing Lasik eye surgery. But in the last five years, a growing number of orthopaedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, dermatologists, internal medicine specialists and family physicians have been going private. "This is a worrisome trend and we really have to think about it," said health-policy expert Jean-François Landry, of the Institut de recherche et d'informations socio-économiques. "This provincial government is moving more and more in the direction of private health care." ... http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=da83248c-1e48-40fb-9c6c-5503d564ec89

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