By Katy Peplinskie
Thirty-three-year-old Matthew Gervan sits on a green massage table at Cleave Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic.
He has just received therapy for his broken leg. Though Gervan looks relaxed, his calm expression belies the blur of thoughts racing through his head.
“I’m in a really tough position,” he admits, running a hand through his shortly cropped hair. “I don’t know how I’ll cover my physiotherapy costs come April.”
That’s because April 1 is the anticipated date when the Ontario Health Insurance Plan will no longer cover sports therapy and physiotherapy at Schedule 5 clinics, and when therapy costs will increase, as per the Liberal government’s 2004 budget.
Schedule 5 clinics are those which provide essential therapy as prescribed by physicians.
“The situation just doesn’t seem fair,” Gervan says.
“It’s not like physio is something superfluous. People like me need it to recover from our injuries. We need it to get on with our lives.”
While the provincial government has announced that physiotherapy in the province will continue to be offered through Home Care and in Long-Term Care facilities, this situation will benefit less than 10 per cent of the population.
Millions of other Ontarians — from athletes, to disabled children to independent seniors — will be left without access to physiotherapy unless they can find a private means of funding it.
Even those who have medical insurance will feel the cutbacks.
“People’s insurance plans give them only a limited amount of money for physio, and once the money runs out, patients are left to pay for treatment out of their own pockets,” says France Lacoursiere, a physiotherapist at the Cleave clinic.
Bob Tithe, 44, says his employer, Bell Canada, gives him about $1,000 each year for physiotherapy.
“I have to come in twice a week to get treatment for my tennis elbow, so the insurance money won’t last long,” he says. “Pretty soon I’ll have to be paying for therapy on my own.”
Andy Labelle, director of the Ottawa and District Physiotherapy Clinic on Metcalfe Street, says the Liberal government’s decision isn’t economically viable.
He says therapy at Schedule 5 clinics only costs the province $12.20 per treatment, making them the most cost-efficient providers in the medicare system.
Labelle adds that those people who can’t afford physiotherapy come April, will not get the treatment they need since they will have no way of footing the bill — especially when the price skyrockets to just under $100 for the first treatment, and about $37 for additional treatments.
“When you look at the facts, the whole situation is absurd,” says Labelle. “Mobility is a necessity, not a luxury.”
OHIP cuts will also have repercussions for the thousands of therapists, kinesiologists and administrative staff employed in sports therapy and physiotherapy clinics across the province.
As of April Fool’s Day, many of them may be laid off as the amount of patients who can afford their services subsides.
“There’ll be severe economic hardships on these clinics by going ahead with legislation,” says Labelle.
“I anticipate losing at least some of our clientele, and that may put us on a slippery slope,” says Lacoursiere.
Gervan points out that OHIP cuts are coming at about the same time as Dalton McGuinty’s new health care tax which makes anyone earning more than $20,000 annually pay more money towards health care, with amounts ranging from an extra $60 to $900 each year.
“Sometimes it seems that the more we pay, the less we get,” Gervan says, shaking his head.