Eye Exams



We heard on the news that some people can’t get an eye exam and our feed says the ONDP wants us to sign this petition. What’s going on? Well, for a couple of months now Ontario Optometrists have not been doing OHIP covered exams because the OHIP fee, about $44 doesn’t come close to covering the real cost estimated to be around $76. OHIP covers exams for children under 19, seniors over 65 and people with diabetes or other eye conditions.

The OAO, Ontario Association of Optometrists waited for 8 months to negotiate with the Ontario government. The government finally listened, or pretended to listen then made an offer and did not negotiate in the only 2 day meeting with the OAO. The government then decided to try and go around the OAO and offer a one time payment directly to eye doctors. They offered $39 million, a figure which they can try to boast about but which, in reality, doesn’t come close to covering the doctors’ losses and does nothing about future funding. These are typical Conservative tactics. Make them wait then pretend to listen and then try to short circuit the professional organization be it union or association or coalition or federation, all the while deceiving the public saying “Well, we offered them $39 million.” or “We are waiting for them to come to the table to negotiate.” The government claims the fee has been increased yearly without saying by how much. In fact the increase was 17 cents a year since 1989. That’s a 0.4% annual increase during a period when biannual inflation seems to hover around 2%.

This government is good at making it seem like they are doing the right thing, that they are trying. The fact is, the only thing they are really trying hard at right now is to raise money for their next election campaign. They are going to push their “For the People” message hard and overwhelm the Ontario public. It doesn’t matter what you really do, as long as you make it sound like you’re doing the right thing. Well, if they were truly “For the People” shouldn’t they be at the negotiating table now so that seniors and school kids can get eye exams?

“Eye care is health care. The Liberals underfunded and used delisting to cut vision care. Now Doug Ford has made it worse, and as usual, our most vulnerable populations, kids and seniors, are paying the price. New Democrats won’t stop fighting for them to get the vision care they need,” - Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West

Please sign our petition and donate what you can to the Ontario NDP so that we can vote out this crass uncaring Conservative government.

#ONDP #AndreaHorwath #OfficialOpposition #optometrist

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