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‘So wrong’ — Windsor patients billed extra for OHIP-covered eye surgeries

Posted: February 18, 2025

(February 18, 2025)

By: Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star

Voters need to use the ballot box, advocates say, to take a stand against what they call an increasingly privatized health care system where patients are upsold and “extra-billed.”
“I’m out $1,180 because the health care system is underfunded and private clinics are being pushed on us as an alternative. This is wrong,” said Bruce Awad.Awad said he paid that amount for cataract surgery at a Windsor-area private clinic, including hundreds of dollars to redo tests his optometrist had already performed.

The Ontario Health Coalition held media conferences in several cities on Tuesday, telling the stories of patients like Awad who were charged for cataract surgeries or “manipulated” into paying for medically unnecessary extras in private clinics.“This whole process does nothing but undermine the public health system and promote privatization of health care,” said Awad, 74. “I feel like I was pushed to use the private clinic. At the very least, it was made difficult to use the public health system at the hospital.”

The health coalition, which bills itself as “a non-partisan citizens group,” held events in Ottawa, Toronto, London, and Windsor. The advocacy group is calling on Ontario’s political parties to make their stance on for-profit health clinics clear ahead of voters going to the polls on Feb. 27.

“We need to make this an election issue,” said Patrick Hannon with the Windsor Essex Health Coalition. “Because the Ford government made it an election issue last time around without letting us know about it. They’re going to do it again.”

He said the issue began with Bill 60, Your Health Act, introduced by the Progressive Conservative government about eight months after the last Ontario election in 2022.

Also called the Your Health Act, it allowed more private clinics to perform some publicly funded surgeries and procedures. The provincial government touted it as a way to shorten health care wait times.Cataract surgery and diagnostic imaging were among the services expanded at private clinics. The health coalition said government legislation bans charging patients for medically necessary surgeries and diagnostic tests.

But since Bill 60 was passed and more patients have been sent to private clinics, Hannon said the health coalition has received hundreds of complaints, including dozens in Windsor.

Ann Lauzon, who had cataract surgery in 2023, said she had to borrow money from a friend to cover the $2,400 she was charged at a Windsor for-profit clinic. Lauzon said the clinic also required her to have eye tests and measurements previously completed by her optometrist.

Clinics offer upgrades, which some patients feel they should choose. Awad and Lauzon told similar stories of their clinic informing them there were lenses covered by OHIP but that there were better, more expensive options.
Lauzon said she was offered a range of lenses costing up to $2,000 per eye. Unable to afford the high-end lenses, Lauzon borrowed some cash and went mid-range.“She said there was one that would be covered by OHIP, but that it wasn’t that great, and then I might have to have my eyes done again in the future,” said Lauzon. “So I opted to get one that was the next up, which I knew that I would be able to manage.”

The clinic that performed the procedures for Awad and Lauzon did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.

“I can’t iterate enough that this is not about the individual private clinics as much as it is about the system that allows it,” said Hannon.

“To have a system that allows private clinics to charge patients individually is — I can’t find the words. This is so wrong.”

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