CBC is recounting Wednesday how the Sherwood Park family of Thomas Wellsman paid $10,000 for a medical procedure to avoid blindness for son Aiden, 16, because Ontario does not cover it. The condition is keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease that causes the cornea to thin and change shape. When he was diagnosed in late October, doctors in Toronto told Aidan and his family it would lead to blindness if left untreated. although no time period is specified in the story. There is much distress and anger about the case because the procedure is covered in full by five Canadian jurisdictions — Yukon, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick. It is not covered in NWT, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The story makes much of the Ontario government’s apparent delay in deciding what to do about paying for keratoconus treatment. Doctors comment that there is politics involved. No doubt. The provincial debt is more than $300,000 billion dollars, not something one wishes to think about when one deals with the eyesight of people. CBC
