2015 Ontario Health Cut Backs: Overview and Specific Impact on Primary Care

Abstract

On February 1st 2015, the Ontario government began implementing a series of unilateral cut-backs to health care in Ontario. These changes include a 2.65% decrease to physician fees across-the-board, restricting entry into Family Health Organizations (FHO) and Family Health Networks (FHN), discontinuing enrolment premiums, and restricting the Income Stabilization program [1-7]. Without a doubt, family physicians are amongst the most heavily impacted physicians [8]. In this commentary, we attempt to summarize the recent events leading to these cut-backs, and discuss the potential implications of these changes with relation to primary care in particular.