The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Beaver THE OAKVILLE Voted Ontario's Top Newspaper Four Years in a Row - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OUT OF INK? REFILL AND SAVE UP TO 60% YMCA Peace medal winner PAGE 10 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009 Upper Oakville Shopping Centre (Upper Middle & 8th Line) 905-842-5600 CELEBRATING 26 YEARS! Between Kerr & Dorval YOUR FRIEND IN THE BUSINESS 175 Wyecroft Rd. Oakville 905.845.6653 www.lockwoodchrysler.com A member of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Vol. 52 No. 144 "USING COMMUNICATION TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES" 48 Pages $1.00 (plus GST) Record numbers of Ontarians are being sent to the U.S. by their government for routine health care that should be available at home. A Metroland Special Report shows thousands of others are funding their own medical treatments south of the border, at high personal cost. The numbers have been rising for the last 10 years. Government approvals for out-of-country health care funding are up 450 per cent. Should Ontarians have to use a passport to get health care? Cross-Border Care series puts Health Minister on hot seat By Melinda Dalton METROLAND MEDIA GROUP JOHN RENNISON / METROLAND MEDIA GROUP ADDED TOUCH: Bowls of candy at the nurses station at Unasource Surgery Centre in Troy, MI. The surgical centre says the little extras make patients, and staff, happy. Private U.S. hospitals sweeten the trip By Melinda Dalton, Joe Fantauzzi and Matthew Strader SECOND IN A THREE-PART SERIES TROY, Mich -- At first glance, it looks more like a hotel than a hospital. Carpeted floors and frosted glass line the hallways. Guests in the waiting room lounge in wingback chairs near a beverage station with complimentary Starbucks coffee. In all the private rooms, medical equipment is carefully tucked away behind cabi- nets that look as if they've leapt from the pages of an IKEA catalogue. Bowls of colourful candy rest within easy reach of smiling nurses and friendly office staff. Soft jazz is piped through the hallway, where letters stencilled on the wall remind: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of dreams." This is Unasource -- a private day surgery centre in Troy, Mich. It's only 40 kilometres from the Canadian border, but it's a world away from any surgery facility north of the 49th. "There's a calming effect when you walk into Unasource," said Michael Kuhn of Windsor, who made the trip to Michigan in 2007 to repair a torn tendon in his shoulder. "It's just an absolutely pristine facility." Kuhn is one of many Canadian patients who found his way to the U.S. for care -- a growing group that is fast feeding an industry that emerged in the last decade to help thousands of Canadians find help across the border. Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews says she's doing her best to bring down a "dramatic increase" in out-of-country health care funded by the provincial health insurance plan. Matthews was responding Thursday in the Ontario Legislature to a question from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath about Metroland's Special Report on Cross Border Care. The Metroland series shows a 450 per cent increase in OHIP approvals for out-of-country care since 2001, when the government funded 2,110 procedures or treatments, compared with 11,775 last year. The Metroland investigation also shows Ontario's spending on out-of-Canada medical services tripled in the last five years, to an estimated $164.3 million for 2010, from $56.3 million in 2005. The out-of-country funding by OHIP is supposed to provide Ontarians with a safety net when they can't immediately find proper care in Ontario. Instead, Horwath said in the legislature, more and more Ontario patients are going across the border for basic care, such as MRIs. "The reality is that Ontarians are facing cuts to their local hospitals, to beds, to staff, to services, and even entire emergency rooms," she said. "Patients are losing access to local care as the McGuinty government shells out more money to private American providers." Matthews told the legislature it's true "there See Business page 20 See Critics page 14