Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Yesterday I received in the Canada Post a very interesting package from my family Doctor. I am one  of the lucky Canadians who actually has a family doctor that I can go see on a regular basis (and make appointments with). He is a good Doctor, and has served me and my wife well over the years.

The mailing outlined to me the fees that my Doctor will be charging for various services not covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Program, which included:

• Prescription renewal (over the phone) $11.72
• Back to work note  $14.45
• Wart Removal $20.00
• etc., etc., etc.,

I wondered why some of this stuff wasn’t covered under the OHIP program, but I am not going to  stop my Doctor from getting paid for services that he does either. If you are asking my opinion, this kind of extra charging is what is going to kill OHIP and I think all this should be paid for in some fashion as part of my medical taxes (but we can discuss that further later, just my opinion).

I then turned the page and saw that in fact this was not just a list of service fees, it was my Doctor offering me an extended warranty program (effectively). For a fee, I can either enroll myself and/or my family in the Coverage plan, and many fees would be waived.

Naturally with any good coverage plan there is the Basic or Standard Plan and the Premium Plan. In the Standard plan a few of the services are covered (mostly administrative), however under the Premium Plan I can get full coverage from all service fees:

• Basic Family $100
• Premium Family $130

Let me be clear very few of these services are actual medical procedures (Wart removal, uninsured vaccinations, TB Skin test and driver’s physical seem to be the only services that are Medical in nature, the rest are simply administrative services (notes, referrals, etc.,)).

I did have a “WTF” moment after I finished reading the letter (and then I read the front page which explained it all to me, yes, I should have read the letter in the order it was sent).  I am not happy about having to pay for all of these services, but this seems to be the Normal Business Procedure for Doctors these days, but now, my Doctor is branching out into the Insurance Business?

The business of running a Doctor’s office is not a trivial one, I fully agree, and there is an overhead involved that needs to be reimbursed in some fashion, but is this the best way to recuperate your operating expenses? None of these expenses would be covered by my Health Insurance at work (I don’t think, I should check), so I am the one that must pay for these services (if I need them).

What is next? My Doctor will start offering Health Insurance like Sun Life? Might not be a bad idea really, if he starts selling Health Insurance he’d make good coin there too.

Any opinions on what my gentle readers think of this program?

• Should I sign up for it?
• Is it justified that my Doctor offers this?

As a middle aged man (you lookin‘ at my gut? I’m workin‘ on it!), I have sore muscles most days, but after attempting to keep up with a bunch of 14 year old girls, I have real pain from some simple exercise (and I didn’t work very hard either). My house goes through Ibuprofen very quickly, due to many reasons but my lack of exercise is one of them.

Do I buy Advil or Motrin? No, I tend to buy the “No Name Generic” versions of these kind of drugs because most of the time they are much cheaper than the “Name Brand” versions of these drugs. Cheaper is fine by me, since the active part of the medication is what I care about. Generics if they work are the right choice in this area.

Canadians Using Less Energy

Is it due to global warming? Don’t think that is the only reason.

Canada’s demand for energy fell by 2.0% in 2006, thanks to declining consumption in the nation’s industrial, transportation, residential and commercial sectors.

Interesting, but we shall see whether this trend continues too.

Snow is Expensive

The City of Ottawa’s snow budget is evidently out of control with this year’s early and heavy snow falls. As usual short sighted planning has caused budget planners to assume that Ottawa wouldn’t get a lot of snow and now we are going to pay the price (as tax payers). What is worse is that all this snow is stopping the Rideau Canal from being available for skating for Christmas day as well!

Say Thanks to Volunteers (especially at this time of the year)

At Christmas time there is an over indulgence in buying presents for many people (in my opinion), however, I think now is the best time to say Thank You in some fashion to the volunteers that touch your lives. Who do I mean? In my life here are some of the amazing volunteers that touch my life and my kids’ lives:

• Coaches (I realize some hockey coaches get paid, but the coaches that touch my kids’ lives don’t get paid much (maybe expenses)).
• Church volunteers (the folks who decorate the Church at Christmas for example)

You don’t have to necessarily buy them a gift, maybe all you have to do is say Thank You to them, and tell them you appreciate their good works?