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The Huron Expositor, 1998-03-11, Page 121$ -THS $HURON EXPOSITOR, Marob 11, 118111 Millions of phony health cards means millions in extra costs for Ontario taxpayers BY JACKIE FITTON Expositor Editor Huron MPP Helen Johns says the province is flooded with fake Ontario Health Cards, netting an annual loss of millions of dollars to the health system. The parliamentary assistant to the health minister from 1995 until April 1997, says there are more health cards out in the province of Ontario than there are people. The only figures Johns can obtain are those from the lib- eral party reign. "At that time there was 12 million cards nut and only 10 Council asks r rovince million Ontarians," she said. Johns believes any dollar taken away by fraud, is taken away from patient care in the province. "We haven't come up with any kind of a dollar figure of the loss:" but adds some peo- ple have estimated it to be up to the $250 million range. "We have nothing at the Ministry of Health that helps us uncover that number, but, (the loss) it's substantial." She said the government has good reason to be con- cerned about the right people using the right health card. "We have to get each dollar we have in health care focussed on the patient and if for s ecial fundin Tax hikes of 12pe BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff r cent `inevitable cially asking the management board of cabinet for $188,700 from the special circumstance funding announced recently Seaforth Council maintains by the Ontario government: that if it doesn't get financial The application is dated help from the Ontario gov- March 2. ernment "property tax increases in the area of 12 per "The impact of the Bell cent are inevitable." Canada tax loss ($38,000), It passed a motion at last the loss of the municipal sup - Tuesday night's meeting offi- port grant when netted Local hospital, town explore issue of another access road Seaforth Community Hospital wants another access road to prevent a situ- ation such as developed last fall when police blockaded Highway 8 to control an inci- dent involving a man with a gun at Lion's Park, thereby preventing people from get Kippen East WI members meet ting in or out of the local hospital in the process. Coun. Michael Hak raised the issue at last Tuesday night's Seaforth Council meeting. He is a representa- tive of the town on the hospi- tal board. He said the hospital doesn't want a fancy road, just anoth- er way to get in and out, a service road if need be. What if it were an ambu- lance? Coun. Hak asked. Kippen East W.I. met at the The hospital has formed a home of Grace Drummond committee to look at the on Tuesday with Dorothy issue. They want to open dia- Bell as co -hostess. logue, he said. There arc Grace welcomed everyone three possible routes. and the meeting opened with Clerk/administrator Jim the Ode and the Mary Crocker said the need for Stewart Collect. Seven mem- another access road for the hers answered the roll call by hospital was discussed, and naming an article in their later dropped, back in 1990. home that is Canadian made. WHO WOULD PAY? Hilda Payne gave the smile In general discussion coun- just before the work began. cil touched on how expropri- ation might become an issue, along with who would bear the costs. Earlier in the meeting on another topic, Works Superintendent John Forest had reported the road along the railway tracks, officially nameless but sometimes called Station Road, has to rebuilt to a better standard to accommodate increased heavy truck traffic coming and going to the new Smith Packaging plant. Does not the hospital deserve as much? Coun. Lin Steffler asked. Coun. Hak noted the hospi- tal is the town's biggest employer. Council decided it would gather information for exploratory purposes and contact property owners to sec where they stand, and if any views have changed since the topic faded away eight years ago. Knitting needles were taken out and a ball of yarn pro- duced the beginnings of cot- ton dishcloths. What we don't have to go through in the name of W.I. for our com- munity. Ruby Triebncr had a poem and Rena Caldwell gave courtesy remarks. Lunch was served by Mona Alderdice and Phyllis Parsons. Next meeting we arc to bring in items for the chil- dren's hospital . Don't forget to wear something green. People Janelle Gowan received first-class honours in her recent Grade 8 piano exam with the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. She is a student of Carol Carter. Public euchre tomorrow The six game shuffleboard scores for March 3 arc as fol- lows: Evelyn Venner 494, Doris Hamilton 477, Dave Woodward 443, Alice Thiel 424, Doug Insley 423, Jeanette Turner 422. The live game scores were: Hazel McEwen 417, Hugh McKay 394. The four game scores were Glenn Davidson 358, Ethel McMurtrie 258. Therc will be a public euchre at the Hensall Community Centre, March 12 at 1:30 p.m. Prizes and lunch included. Sponsored by the Hensall Seniors. Everyone is welcome. The •Hensall and District Horticultural Society will meet March 16 at Queensway Retirement Home at 7:30 p.m. The speaker will be Deb Witte, of "In the Garden", discussing landscaping with unusual perennials. Pots and seeds will be handed out for members to grow for the town beds. A draw will also take place for a paid-up member to have their fee paid to the district annual meeting. At Hensall United Church Nancy Fraser was the minis- ter. Mark Garlough was the 1 Hensall by Liz Sangster 262-2715 organist. The greeters were Joanne Moir and her daugh- ter. John and Veronica Thomson were the ushers. Ross Kercher was the lector. The Canadian Food Grains committee appreciate the generous donations received. The church office will be closed from March 16-27. Nancy can be reached at 262- 3216, you can leave a mes- sage on the answering machine. Anyone needing a ride to church call Cecil Pepper at 262-2201 or Ross Kercher at 262-3435. The annual beef supper at Hensall United Church will be held April 22. At Carmel Presbyterian Church, Rev. Kevin Steeper's message was "Hope Against Hope". Al Hoggarth and Harry Smith received the offering. Joyce Pepper was the organist. Communion will be served on March 22. we continue to have no checks on the system, it doesn't do any of the taxpay- ers any good," she said. The government does have some control, but they are not good controls. It is trying to come up with a card that gives good health documen- tation, so health information can be shared if it's appropri- ate and in other times when it's not. With the number of health cards circulating, Johns says each government has been trying to improve on the cards to give better identifi- cation of the person needing health care. "A lot more could be done to cut down health fraud if we had a better health card," she says. .Johns has also received numerous phone calls from constituents regarding the health card validation. "People seem to be con- cerned that they will be denied service if they don't present their health card when attending a hospital or emergency room. This is not true," says Johns. A hospital will provide the care required whether or not the patient presents their health card. The Ministry of Health has if town doesn't get $188,700? against the community rein- vestment fund and the special transition fund ($119,500), farm tax rebate ($1,000), assessment downloading (523,000), and the increase in the 1998 OPP contract ($14,700), plus the municipal target of $51,000 in reduced municipal spending has put Seaforth in a precarious posi- tion," the cover letter to the application adds. 12% TAX HIKE! "Seaforth Council is contin- uing its review of the 1998 budget to determine if some services will have to be reduced or eliminated," a municipal profile that accom- panies the application states. "Council has cut back in the arca of capital expendi- tures; increased user fee rev- enues; eliminated transfers to reserve funds, and cannot of 12 per cent is inevitable." The population of Seaforth is 2,350, there are 1,115 households and the town's 1997 operating expenditures were $2,994,795, according to this profile. "In the last three years provincial support for the town has decreased by $150,927," the document states. "Despite these cut- backs, and because of pro- active management, the cor- poration of municipal employees and council, the 1997 municipal mill rate was the same as it was in 1991." AMALGAMATION "Seaforth Council's long- term strategy will focus on amalgamation to reduce the amount and cost of local gov- ernment and restructuring, within our own municipality, and together with our neigh - carry the provincial down- bouring municipalities, that loading any further. Without will help in dealing with the assistance under the "Special impacts of the transfer of pro - Circumstances Fund," prop- grams from the province," erty tax increases in the area the cover letter concludes. `Daffodil Days' have come a long way The Canadian Cancer Society hopes to raise 52 - million in this province from this year's "Daffodil Days" that take place from Apr. 2 through 5. The target is a far cry from the first such day, more than 40 years ago, when $1,200 was raised through daffodil sales in downtown.Toronto. The national cancer society is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 1998. When the organization was formed on Mar. 28, 1938 one in five people treated for the disease recovered successful- ly. Today that figure is closer to one in two, thanks in a large pari to research funded by such things as daffodil sales and door-to-door cam- paigns. Across Ontario, 25,000 vol- unteers will also pound the pavement and knock on doors during April raising money for Canadian Cancer Society research. This year's total April cam- paign goal in Ontario is $21 - million. If you have questions about the disease, you can call the society's cancer information service toll-free at 1-888- 939-3333. created a health card valida- tion project which is a 1-800 line that enables health care providers to determine the status of the health card num- bers and version code at the point of service. The project also assists health care providers with decisions regarding eligibility, verifica- tion of patient date and pro- tects against health care fraud. The project assists doctors, who are registered with the program to confirm that the patient has a valid OHIP number. St. Patrick's hosts `Prayer Day' On Friday, March 6, St. Patrick's, Dublin, hosted the World Day of Prayer for the area churches including St. Columban, St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Brodhagen, and First Lutheran, Logan Township. The theme this year was _"Who is my neighbour?" inspired by the special needs of the island of Madagascar, off the cast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Father Del Ciancio wel- comed everyone to the cele- bration, while Thereasa Mabb led the service. Members of the various con- gregations delivered read- ings. Martin Vink from- R.R. 2, Dublin was the guest speaker and shared his experiences of Haiti and the Dominican Republic with the partici- pants. Songs of praise were led by organist Katherine Mabb. Dublin by Dorothy Dillon 345-2883 There were approximately 60 in attendance and following the services, all enjoyed a lunch and fellowship. Congratulations to Dave and Jackie Wietersen (and big brothers Matthew and Brady) on the arrival of a baby girl, Hailey Joanne, born January 23 weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz. Happy Birthday to Daniel Nash, Seaforth, who cele- brates today, March 4. Joe Eckert was pleased to have a visit from John Eckert and Tanya, Waterloo. THOUGHT FOR TODAY Some of us don't get inter- ested in anything until we find it's none of our business. HPCDSB student wins big award Bridgette Roelands of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School has been named the 1998 elementary school award winner by the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association. She is a Huron -Perth Catholic District School Board student was awarded the honour for merit and ettr ciency. 'The association gave its annual secondary school award to a teacher from the Ottawa -Carlton area, and recipients of three awards of merit for trustees in Ottawa - Carlton, York and Halton were also named. Lawn bowlers hold social The February Social and euchre of the Seaforth Lawn Bowling Club was held Tuesday evening February 24th at the Seaforth Legion Hall. Hostesses for the evening were Betty Hulley and Edna Mitchell. Seven tables of euchre were in play and win- ners for the evening were ladies high, Jean Keyes, ladies lone hands, Olave Little, ladies consolation, Edna Mitchell and Mary Finlayson (tied), men's high, Bob McMillan, men's Ione hands, John Goldsmith, men's consolation, Sam McClure. The next euchre and social will be held March 24th, 8 p.m. at'the Legion Hall. Hosting will be Velma Preszcator, Beth Pryce and Bob McMillan. A number of our regular members have been battling the flu so we wish all a speedy recovery. BUCK& DOE JOHN McLACHLAN STEPHANIE DEBUS Friday, March 20 Spm - 1 am Music by D.J. • Age of Majority lunch Provided ItCr > x#32 . guawtt'3. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 JACKIE'S HAIR & AESTHETICS OFFERING • Cuts • Perms *Colour • Hilites • Manicures • Pedicures • Personalized facials • Acne treatments • Body massage • Lash & Brow tinting • Waxing & much more! For every booking from now until March 30th enter a draw for a Free Pedicure Book your appointment today! REMINDER' WEDDINGS &PROMS" ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER CALL TODAY 527-1743 JACKIE WILDFONG PHILINE • OPI • ° VITAL NUTRIENTS • LOGICS • o ICON • VAVOOM • ESSENTIALS • 0 0 0 0 0 0 t