In a few weeks, Little Liam Reid will be turning three. No, he doesn't want a Leapster or even a Thomas the Tank Engine train table for his birthday.
What he and his parents really want is for the Ontario Provincial Health Plan (OHIP) to cover the cost of surgery to give him back the eyesight he has lost.
Though Liam was diagnosed with a rare condition called Norrie’s disease just three and a half months after birth, Canadian hospitals have exhausted what they can do to help him. His only hope is a special surgeon, Dr. Michael Tracy. The only problem is logistical: Dr. Tracy works out of Beaumont Hospital in Detroit.
So much for our glowing health care system. It seems the bureaucrats can't their heads around this one. And despite the fact that there is already one other child in Ontario being treated in the U.S. by Dr. Tracy, the Reids have been forking out their own money to get Liam treated there.
Parents Kristina and Dave have already spent $45,000, and have to forgo further treatment because they can't afford it. The family from Whitby, Ont.'s request for funding has so far, persistently and inexplicably, been turned down.
We have a pretty good health care system, agreed? But sometimes certain rare conditions and diseases arise, and we must throw up our hands and admit that the expertise, for now, resides elsewhere. But Canadians still deserve to be treated, regardless of borders.
I say, Let OHIP pay now and sort out the details later, eh? Then we might actually have something to be proud about.
Dear Health Minister...