The current-day reality is ever-changing and consistently evolving. With seemingly daily advancements in the worlds of technology, science, healthcare, and politics, it can be difficult to keep up. The Canada Health Act was adopted in 1984, allocating funds to each province for universal health coverage to Canadian citizens for any services deemed medically necessary (Flood & Thomas 2016). Through the Canada Health Act, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) was created. While it technically continues to serve its purpose, it has not seen many drastic changes since its conception; the Canada Health Act is no longer evolving with the needs of modern-day society.
There are many improvements to be made to the Canada Health Act in order to modernize it. A particularly important change that would apply to the field of Indigenous health policy is to properly address access to health care for rural and isolated Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario. Currently, OHIP covers travel costs for those living in Northern Ontario who cannot access necessary health care services in proximity to their home (Government of Ontario 2023). The Northern Health Travel Grant (Government of Ontario 2023) is incredibly useful – it has helped many people I know, but it can be tedious to fill out, especially for those who do not have any prior knowledge of the health care system. Another aspect to consider is that while it is very helpful to have travel costs covered, access to reliable transportation isn’t always possible for those who live in isolated communities (Burnett et al. 2020). In Northern Ontario, there are two major cities that service the entire half of the province in terms of fully rounded medical care: Thunder Bay and Sudbury. There are other towns with hospitals such as Sault Ste. Marie, Cochrane, and Timmins, but these hospitals cannot provide the more specific tests and procedures. It is very common for community members to have to travel over four hours to reach their destination, that is, if they have access to a vehicle and can afford the costs until they are reimbursed.
The federal and provincial governments need to work hand in hand with Indigenous communities in order to find solutions to this trivial issue. It would be beneficial to approach the situation through the philosophy of Two-Eyed Seeing, combining both Western and Indigenous ways of thought in order to reach a solution (Jeffery et al. 2021). Some initiatives such as the Anishinabek Nation Health Transformation have started the work towards mending the gap of access to health care for Indigenous communities (Anishinabek Nation 2020).
The current solution of OHIP covering travel costs is not sufficient for all citizens of Northern Ontario. The implementation of systemic changes that completely redefine the infrastructure of the health care system are necessary in order to address this issue. Rather than having people travel to hospitals, medical teams could travel to communities. These teams would have to consist of many different health care professionals with specific training to address prominent health issues within Indigenous communities; this is where the Two-Eyed seeing approach would come in.
Changes that are necessary to modernize the Canada Health Act in the realm of access to health care for Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario would need to be incredibly drastic. However,
The primary objective of Canadian health care policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers (Government of Canada 1985).
It is only with these drastic changes that the Canada Health Act would properly fulfill its primary objective as presented.
References
Anishinabek Nation. (2020). Health Transformation. https://health-transformation.ca/about-ht/
Burnett, K., Sanders, C., Halperin, D., & Halperin, S. (2020). Indigenous Peoples, settler colonialism, and access to health care in rural and northern Ontario. Health & Place, 66 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102445
Flood, C.M., & Thomas, B. (2016). Modernizing the Canada Health Act. Dalhousie Law Journal, 39(2), 397-411 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2907029
Government of Canada. (1985). Canada Health Act R.S.C., c. C-6. Retrieved 2 October 2023 from https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-6/page-2.html#docCont
Government of Ontario. (2023). What OHIP covers. Retrieved 2 October 2023 from https://www.ontario.ca/page/what-ohip-covers#section-4
Jeffery, T., Kurtz, D., & Jones, C. (2021). Two-Eyed Seeing: Current approaches, and discussion of medical applications. BCMJ, 63(8), 321-325.
Wix. (2023). Justice [Image]. https://www.wix.com
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