Dr. Dave explains why Ontario's health insurance doesn't cover chiropractic care. Like dentistry, it's preventive and most people skip it until pain hits. Government funding prioritizes quick fixes over long-term prevention, even though paying out-of-pocket now can prevent costlier problems later.
Chapters
Hey everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well and having a great week or weekend, whatever you may be doing, enjoying yourselves and creating those great experiences in your life. Sometimes as a chiropractor I get a lot of questions and I don't always have all the answers and sometimes I even wonder what the answers are and not a lot of them are actually not health-related questions, they're other questions that are involved in trying to even access healthcare. And one of the big questions we get is, why, why isn't chiropractic care covered by extended healthcare coverage here in Ontario through our Ontario Health Insurance Plan? And it's a really good question, and sometimes the way we relate it to patients is it's similar to dentistry. Dentistry is the second largest healthcare profession in the world, and you know, it's not covered by our provincial healthcare plan. And it's seen more as a preventive service. Although a lot of us don't actually use it as preventive, only about 45 to 55% of the population goes to a dentist, and the majority of those even are only when they feel they need it or they notice a problem. The fewer number of people actually access it just for the regular checkups and the cleanings. And chiropractic care is very similar. You know, we're quite often accessed when people have a pain or a problem,, but were actually better utilized in terms of preventing those pains or problems. But when it comes to our healthcare funding, you know, there are so many people with so many health problems that I guess when the government allots a certain amount of money to take care of these cases, they have to look at what is most likely to deliver relief, what is most likely going to get that person out of pain or discomfort. And in that system, that's considered helping, uh, treat that problem. Whereas if another system works more towards improving the health of that body part, say your oral health, your dental health, or even your spinal health, you may feel better and you'll get some good results, but it may take a little longer, and it's a different approach. Uh, it's more about taking care of yourself. So the interesting thing is, even though we don't have provincial health coverage— we used to, um, but more people were accessing— and there was the same allotted amount of money that eventually the amount of money that was available didn't amount to very much per person, so it was pulled. A very similar thing happened with physiotherapy a number of years back when it was taken away and then it was reinstituted for some segments of the population. But now even physio has become more a fee-for-service treatment modality similar to chiropractic. The nice thing about that process is though When we invest in ourselves, it's unfortunate when we do run into a health problem, but it's great to know there's a solution out there and that we're not just left without any options. Now, some of those options do take an investment in time and money, but all the great things that are worth having in life, all the things that create your memories and those great experiences I keep talking about, are the ones that you are always happy that you invested in. And when our patients come to us, even though initially it seems like, wow, it's going to take some time and money to get this better, At the end of the process, they always look back and they're thankful that they made the decision to go and do it because they've been able to recover their health, they're functioning better, and they're out there creating those great experiences. So I may not know the ins and outs or the exact details of why chiropractic isn't covered. There's probably some really good financial reasons, some fiscal reasons, um, some politics involved, but the reality is that there's some good use to these different professions that we do have to invest into, and if we access them and use them in a real smart way, probably in the long term it's going to end up saving us time and money when we don't run into those health problems that we might end up treating had we not taken care of ourselves. Alright? So the message here, you guys, keep taking care of yourselves. Take time, spend the money to invest in your health so that you can have those great experiences every day, and we're happy to help you do that. If you have any questions, you know how to get a hold of us. We'd be happy to hear from you.
