Health Tax




	Beginning July 1, 2004, the Ontario Liberal government started collecting, through the income tax system, an Ontario Health Premium that is based on an individual's taxable income. This was McGuinty’s broken promise of “Not raising taxes”. The premium is costing Ontarians up to $900 each. McGuinty’s government justified this levy in order to shorten wait-times in hospitals. This did not result in any significant improvement in both Emergency Rooms and Operations wait times. The health premium provides the McGuinty government with some $2.8 billion with nothing to show for. Furthermore, the McGuinty government delisted eye exams, physiotherapy and chiropractic care from OHIP but left sex changes publicly funded. More info on this can be found here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/07/01/ontario_healthtax040701.html http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/04/23/health-tax-070423.html http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/08/05/ontario-taxreview.html Wait times: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/06/16/ott-wait-times-hip.html http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Emergency+room+wait+time http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_2010_en.htm