Ontario’s provincial government has rejected calls to waive its three-month waiting period for new immigrants to receive free health care.
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan – or commonly known as the OHIP, is Ontario’s version of the Canadian free health care system, and it covers most essential health care bills of Canadians and permanent residents.
New immigrants can access the services only after 90 days of registered residency in the province, but there have been calls from immigrant and settlement groups as well as from the powerful Ontario Medical Association (OMA) – the group representing the province’s medical professionals – to do away with it.
The OMA had lately argued that the waiting period was an unnecessary hurdle to medical care without being cost effective.
The agency also said that money can be saved if those suffering from a serious illness seek immediate medical assistance, rather than wait for the waiting period to end.
But the provincial health minister Deb Matthews says all hospitals and community health centres will accept patients needing emergency care with or with the OHIP card.
The government also says it is keeping the waiting period intact to prevent people visiting the province just to take advantage of the medical system.
Although a number of provinces and territories in Canada do not have a waiting period, Ontario officials point out that they are not alone in maintaining it. Quebec and British Columbia, the two other provinces that also receive high number of immigrants every year, also have a waiting period.
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