Government Revokes Owen Pallett's Health Care

Owen needs to talk to his MP and maybe also Minister of Health George Smitherman who is opening a constituency office on Parliament. He has loads of agency and can create the kind of embarrassment that will have the Premier saying "sometimes the civil service get out of hand."

Get rid of those pen pushers paper shufflers sit warmers brain less creatures being fed by our hard earned money.

Ahh bureaucracy. It never fails to blow my mind. And this is coming from a full fledged bureaucrat. He needs to write Smitherman and his local MPP on this. Forget Parliament, they'll just push this over to the local/Ontario level.

This is why, when I lived abroad for two years, I didn't tell the Ontario Ministry of Health. I wanted to be able to see my doctor, hassle-free, when I made brief trips back home.

I don?t think this is the whole story. His health coverage wasn?t revoked, he?s still going to get a health card in the mail with an effective day of 3 months from the date he presented himself to the OHIP office. Those are the rules and it?s got nothing to do with ?how Canadian? you are. If you?re out of the country for more than 6 months you become a non resident and you?re health coverage takes 3 months to kick back in.
Would you all be happy if someone from Pakistan (for example) though a Canadian citizen, spent most of the year or several years in Pakistan earning money abroad and came back to Canada when he/she developed a serious illness. Would you want OHIP to kick in right away? But people like this aren?t so foolish as our musician friend who spends time away without a valid health card. They renew before they leave so as to have the five years of grace before their card expires.

I sincerely hope that someone can take this matter forward to George Smitherman and get it resolved as quickly as possible.

Such treatment at a counter put the lie to the phrase "civil servant". More than an apology is in order
for this person and it'll be interesting to learn how it is resolved.

Contrarian, you don't call that temporarily revoked?

Not sure what the Ontario backstory is, but in Quebec these rules were put in place for snowbirds who lived full-time in Florida and Mexico but flew back for healthcare.

Alternate Story:

Government passes law, regulations drafted, employee follows regulation, indie rocker denied coverage on unambiguous breach of regulation, tiny message board outraged.

This is such a non-story.

(Can someone help post this in Stillepost? I don't really want to register for just one post)

In short, the OHIP officer erred. Just go to another OHIP office to get it straighten out if he doesn't want to fight at the same office. He should ask for the General Manager if he still encounter problems. The legislation and statue are very clear on Owen's right to receive a health card as long as his principal home is in Ontario. The Health Insurance Act enables GENERAL, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 552, s1-1.1 (http://www.canlii.org/on/laws/regu/1990r.552/20080115/whole.html) which is as follows:

(3) A person referred to in clause (2) (a) [permanent/principal home in Ontario] is exempt from the requirement of subclause (2) (a) (ii) [nb. the 153 days clause]if the person provides the General Manager with evidence that he or she meets one of the following criteria:

1. The person?s employment requires the person to travel frequently outside of Ontario.

(...)

Wow, it must be tough being a rock star these days.

It's also hard out there for a pimp.

Hello Owen,
My name is Lu Zhou, producer for CBC's morning show "Metro Morning". I learned about your story and wonder if you could give me a call as soon as you can to chat about your situation and potencially line up an interview.
you can reach me at 416-205-5828. Thanks ! lu

Hello, my name is Lu Zhou, producer for CBC radio, and I'm interested in talking to Owen about his experience...I just posted a comment looking for him and left my contact number. if anyone reads this and knows how to get hold of him, could you pass the message along? or pass me his contact? thanks ! Lu

Lu, be a good journalist and check the link to Owen's original post on Stillepost. In one of his followup posts in the thread he provides an email address.