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URGENT SURVEY: Ontario Health Coalition Survey on Extra Fees in Private Clinics

Posted: February 5, 2024

(February 5, 2024)

The Canada Health Act says that patients cannot be charged for medically necessary hospital and physician services, such as cataract surgeries and MRIs. Public health care is supposed to cover all Canadians equally, but sometimes private clinics charge extra fees to patients unlawfully. Private clinics also sometimes charge fees for medically unnecessary tests or procedures, including special cataract lenses or extra eye measurements for cataract surgery.

If you or a direct family member has been charged these unlawful extra fees in recent years, please fill out our survey and send it to us by February 29, 2024. The survey takes most people less than 5 minutes to complete, and almost everyone finishes within 10 minutes. It’s really easy to do!

We will use the information from your survey responses to make a public report and submissions to the provincial and federal governments to stop extra user charges for patients and protect equal access to public health care for all Canadians. We will not include any patients’ names or personal information in the report or submissions without permission to do so.

If you have completed a previous version of this survey, please do not submit the same occasion of being charged extra fees more than once.

Take the survey by:

If you are using the printable version, send us your completed survey by:

  • emailing info@ontariohc.ca with the subject line “EXTRA FEES SURVEY”, or
  • mailing Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201, Toronto, Ontario, MC3 1Y8.

Survey deadline: please send us your completed survey or complete the online version by February 29, 2024.

Please share this survey with your seniors’ organization, patient group, community group, friends, family, and neighbours to collect evidence on what patients are being charged in private clinics.

Click here for printable version (PDF)