Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
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January 3, 2010
Public Vs. Private Health Care
Nearly every week either a patient or someone I meet socially will ask me whether Genesis is a “private health care clinic.” The short answer is “no.”
According to Health Canada, private health care clinics in Canada are “facilities that receive no government funding: the physicians are not reimbursed by the provincial health care insurance plan and their patients must pay the full cost of the services rendered to them.”
At Genesis, we are fully within the public health care system, i.e. MSP. The catch is that not all the services we provide are covered by MSP.
I admit that the public versus private health care issue is a bit confusing as there are gray areas. The health care system in Canada is publicly funded but mostly privately delivered. Most people are treated by physicians who are in their own private practice (including your GP). This means that they are not paid a salary by the government, but they bill MSP for your medical treatment rather than charging you directly.
We are just like any other physicians or medical clinic in this regard: we see you at Genesis and bill MSP for treatments they cover. This includes your consultation with us, surgery, ultrasounds to monitor menstrual cycles, and emergency room treatment. Even your fertility tests are covered by MSP. There are a number of treatments that are not covered by MSP and these include IVF, some sperm tests and artificial/intrauterine insemination. The reason for this is that Health Canada has decided that:
… a number of services provided by hospitals and physicians are not considered medically necessary [including vitro fertilization and artificial/intrauterine insemination] and, thus, are not insured under provincial and territorial health insurance legislation. Uninsured physician services for which patients may be charged differ from province to province.
At the moment, Quebec is the only province that plans to covers IVF (likely starting in the spring 2010). However, there has been some promising progress in Ontario as a report released in August 2009 by the The Ontario Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption proposed that Ontario health care should fund up to three treatment cycles and one session of counseling. The report argues that health care costs would be reduced by funding and regulating IVF. Currently, these recommendations are being reviewed by Ontario healthcare (OHIP), and if they were adopted that would put pressure on other provinces to follow suit.
At Genesis, we have been long-time advocates for IVF to be funded by public health care, and Dr. Albert Yuzpe sits on a national board that is lobbying the government.
We are committed to promoting reproductive health and advancing fertility treatments. In addition to caring for our patients at Genesis, we work at VGH and BC Women’s providing gynecology services and teaching medical students and residents.
And while it doesn’t help you if you are trying to conceive with IVF or other uncovered treatments now, we do hope that our efforts are going have an impact on the delivery of fertility treatment in the future.
Because the decision to fund or not to fund fertility treatments is largely political, public pressure on both your MLA and on the BC’s health minister Kevin Falcon may help bring about change. If you want to express your views on the need for public funding for fertility treatments like IVF, you can e-mail Kevin Falcon at Kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.ca
Dr. Beth Taylor
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility