Ontario Vulnerable to Legal Challenge Because of Medical Tourism: Nursing Leader

August 6, 2014

(The Toronto Star) – If the province doesn’t order hospitals to stop practising medical tourism, it risks a court challenge over the right to pay out-of-pocket for health care, the head of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario warns. “If you seek out people from other countries to pay for health care here, you are inviting a lawsuit from someone in Canada who wants to pay,” Doris Grinspun suggested. Among Ontario hospitals that treat patients from abroad are Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University Health Network. Medical tourism is a threat to medicare because it creates a double standard that could see well-heeled Canadians demand to pay out-of-pocket to jump the queue and get quick treatment, Grinspun said.