Ontario Liberals call for an end of subscription fees to access a doctor or nurse practitioner
CTV
The Ontario Liberal Party is calling on the government to end the practice of charging subscription fees to access a doctor or a nurse practitioner, as a clinic in Ottawa's south end is under scrutiny for charging a membership fee.
The Ontario Liberal Party is calling on the government to end the practice of charging subscription fees to access a doctor or a nurse practitioner, as a clinic in Ottawa's south end is under scrutiny for charging a membership fee.
CTV News Ottawa first reported last week that the South Keys Health Center is charging clients a $400 per year membership fee for access to a nurse practitioner, not a doctor. Under provincial health laws, it is illegal for doctors to charge a fee for services that are covered by OHIP.
"The problem is the ability to charge a subscription fee exists in Ontario and if one person is going to try to take advantage of that, others will," interim Liberal leader John Fraser said at Queen's Park.
"So you need to ban that practice, number one. Number two, nurse practitioners or primary care, whether it's delivered by a nurse practitioner or a physician, should be covered by the publicly funded OHIP system, full stop."
The Ontario Liberals are calling on the Ontario government to ensure primary care is always covered by OHIP, whether you are seeing a primary care physician or a nurse practitioner, end subscription fees in primary care and fully fund primary care.
"Charging a subscription fee, or a membership fee, for the right to access services that are supposed to be provided to you as a citizen is wrong," Fraser said.
"I think that any government, and it should happen right now with this government, if they believe that people should only have to use their OHIP card, they should ban this practice and do it right now."
