Government out of step with out of country care

Consistent with our findings in the past, most respondents, despite their high ratings of their care at home, are willing to travel outside the system if they had to and to expect reimbursement. Almost 40% said such care should be reimbursed by the Canadian health care system without conditions. Many more (59%) said that there should be reimbursement with conditions. Only 2% said there should be no reimbursement. Belief in full unconditional reimbursement is far higher in Quebec (53%) than elsewhere.

Only 30% thought that reimbursement should require prior approval. 27% thought approval could be given after treatment was started or completed and over 42% said reimbursement should just require a referral from your doctor. In Quebec, that figure was even higher (48%).

Clearly, the policy makers that insist on strict application of the prior approval requirements are way out of step with CARP ActionOnline readers who answered our survey and we will be drawing this response to their attention.

These survey results, based on over 5,600 CARP ActionOnline readers, are considered reliable within plus or minus 1.4 % 19 times out of 20.