[lit-ideas] Re: The flu

Sunday, November 21, 2004, 3:43:27 AM, Erin Holder wrote:

EH> In Canada the government has cut out eye exams from OHIP and yet there are
EH> people lobbying for OHIP to cover sex changes.  

Our system began by covering everything then introduced charges for some things 
so we have similar apparent oddities. People have to pay for eye tests at 
opticians (but not at eye hospitals, and there's a list of exemptions) but sex 
change operations and cosmetic surgery are covered.  But the former are not 
easy to get; however, 3 people refused the op by their health authority after 
being assessed as OK, 1 who faced a massive wait to be assessed, sued and won. 

The woman who was told she would have to wait 15 years (!) to be assessed by an 
NHS psychiatrist (no this is not a waiting list, her Health Authority would 
only refer one person a year, they will now have to change that) said after the 
judgment and the Health authority's reaction

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"I am very pleased that Sheffield Health is going to change its policy.  They 
have agreed with us that the policy is flawed and it needs to be changed"

"We want them to look at the patient's clinical needs as they would for any 
other condition"

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



It's mind boggling.  If that
EH> one gets pushed through, Mike, I'll let you know.

the problem is, Erin, that -- here, anyway -- we already have NHS specialists 
in all the branches of medicine and psychiatry and the associated equipment; so 
abolishing NHS treatments for what you might think of as marginal conditions (I 
would rank minor plastic surgery as more marginal than sex-change operations) 
is not going to help pay for free eye examinations for everybody.

(Our system does pay for eye examinations for more or less everybody with a 
case for getting them free.)

>>> >>





-- 
 Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK   
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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