By Peter Severinson
Chiropractic coverage will be cut from OHIP later this fall according to the provincial budget released in May, but some say that not only is this bad for health care, it won’t even save the province any money.
Cutting chiropractic care – which focuses on the skeleton and nervous system – would send more ailing people to hospitals and put more pressure on an over-burdened public health system, according to a recent report by Deloitte and Touche LLP, a consulting firm.
The report, Impact of Delisting Chiropractic Services, predicts emergency department visits could increase by seven to 14 per cent, costing up to $125-million per year.
“The government would not save money by doing this,” says Ontario Chiropractic Association President Dean Wright, who adds the current OHIP coverage costs about $100-million per year. The budget also calls for an end to subsidies for physiotherapy and some optometry coverage.
For the people it covers, OHIP currently subsidizes $9.65 per chiropractic visit for up to $150 a year. This accounts for about 30 per cent of the cost of an average visit.
More than 100,000 people have signed a petition protesting the chiropractic cuts, Wright says, and two rallies this summer brought 1,000 demonstrators to Toronto and 700 to Ottawa.
David Komesch, a chiropractor who practices at the Ottawa Chiropractic Centre on Metcalfe Street, says this cut will affect the entire community. About half the population will at some point require chiropractic care, he says.
“We do a lot of work with new patients that have distress,” Komesch says. “We have patients who can’t walk, can’t sit, they can’t sleep, they can’t raise their arms.”
One such patient was Shirley Harrison, who says when she first visited Komesch 20 years ago, she could only move around by shuffling slowly.
“I was here with Dr. Komesch I suppose for about three hours,” she says. “(Afterwards,) I just walked out of here.”
She’s angry about the planned cuts, she says. She says chiropractic care has kept her husband comfortable while fighting cancer, eased her daughter’s migraine headaches, and helped her son recover from a football injury.
“It keeps us out of the hospitals.”
When the OHIP money is gone, Komesch says he expects the number of patients coming to his office to drop by 10 to 15 per cent.
Wright says many people will not be able to afford the higher cost of chiropractic treatment and head to hospitals, making it harder for everyone to use the emergency room. People on fixed incomes, like many seniors and the working poor, will be the most affected by the cuts, he adds.
The Deloitte report has provided new facts for the provincial government to consider, Wright says, and now that recent health talks are finished, they have new federal money to spend.
“Now there’s new facts, there’s new money – it’s really time for them to revisit this.”
The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care did not return calls.