Canadians have a love/hate relationship with health care. We are proud of our universal health care system; in fact we brag about it when we talk to our American relatives. It’s the extra little charges that make us angry. We bristle when the doctor charges us $5 to fax a prescription to our pharmacy or when a podiatrist charges a $95 “new patient registration” fee. But nothing makes us boil more than the creative ways hospitals invent to rip us off. Almost everyone thinks ill of outrageous hospital parking fees and the myriad of extra charges like telephone rental fees they tag onto your hospital bill. Here is another one that you probably haven’t thought about. I’m an insulin dependent diabetic. One night before going to bed I took a triple dose of the wrong insulin. The paramedic sent by 911 suggested he take me to the Humber River Hospital emergency where they could monitor my blood sugar throughout the night. Two weeks later I received a bill from the hospital for $45 for ambulance service. Now I happen to know that ambulance service is provided free of charge by the City of Toronto to Toronto residents. The cost comes out of property taxes. I ignored the bill. A month later I received a second invoice so I wrote to the hospital: The hospital responded by sending me a copy of the original bill with the words “AMBULANCE SERVICE” emphasized. I wrote back to the Patient Accounts department. Now, as Prime Minister Harper is fond of saying, “let me be clear about this”. I could pay the bill and my Manulife supplementary Insurance policy would reimburse me the $45. It’s not so much the money as the principle. I will not pay it because; having served on the City’s Committee that provides ambulance services I recognize it for the rip-off that it is. It’s not just the Humber River Hospital; all the Toronto hospitals do it. The hospitals get away with it because most people pay it. They don’t recognize it as the boondoggle it is.Does the hospital have the legal authority to levy this charge?Yes they do.There is a little known Ontario regulation that permits them to do it. But what is worse the Ontario Government is a partner in this deception and the Minister of Health has never been able to explain why. You see, the hospital keeps about half the money and sends the balance to the province. I’m prepared to go to small claim’s court and defend my position. The hospital provides no service whatsoever for this fee. If I had arrived at the emergency department in a taxi or by TTC they would have no excuse to charge it. Is it any wonder that fewer and fewer Canadians are reluctant to make charitable donations to hospitals? By: Howard Moscoe