Rampant fraud in Canada's healthcare system

A year ago the Toronto Star published an article about a group of doctors who wanted Ottawa to stop deporting illegal immigrants because fear of deportation supposedly kept illegals from seeking medical attention. According to the article, the illegal aliens paid the doctors directly. I made this observation:

The article says illegal immigrants pay the doctors out of pocket, but what about all those illegals who use false documentation or who borrow OHIP cards from family and co-workers? How many of them are being treated courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer?

My opinion that illegal immigrants were using fraud to get free healthcare was reinforced last year when Ontario's auditor general revealed that Queen's Park had issued 300,000 (another report says 500,000) more health cards than there are people in the province. My belief received another boost earlier this year when York Regional Police broke up a massive counterfeit operation run by students from China. It's pretty simple. Where there are illegal immigrants, there are fraudulent documents, including health cards.

On April 18, Immigration Watch Canada issued a bulletin that describes rampant fraud in the healthcare system. Julie Taub, an immigration lawyer, writes:

Has any politician ever thought to investigate whether everyone on the waiting lists, emergency departments, doctors’ offices is really eligible for health care. Having a health card means little because there are hundreds of thousands of fraudulent cards; the government of Ontario distributed 500,000 too many under the Conservatives. In Ontario, the majority of health cards have no pictures, such as mine until several weeks ago. Thousands have obtained health cards fraudulently in Ontario and I am sure across Canada. Americans living near the border can rent or buy health cards. Some permanent residents and citizens rent or lend their cards to friends or family who visit them from abroad. I am an immigration lawyer, and some of my clients have confirmed that this practice is rampant. (Editor's Note: Former B.C. MLA David Schreck has recently pointed out B.C. irregularities similar to those in Ontario.)

Read the whole bulletin.

See also:

300,000 more healthcare cards in Ontario than there are people

York Regional Police break up massive forgery operation run by visiting Chinese students in Markham

African refugee gives African nurse AIDS - Globe and Mail wants Canadians to pay the bill