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LETTER: Mandatory medical exam is unfair to B.C. senior drivers

This pensioner would like to be reimbursed $248
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Requiring all 80-year-old drivers to have a medical examination is discriminatory, this senior says.

Editor,

(An open letter I have sent to several members of political parties running for office and to B.C. Medical Services Plan)

I am writing to you regarding the medical examination required for drivers reaching 80 years of age. I went to my doctor for my medical examination yesterday and paid the doctor $248 for the examination. $248 is a fair chunk of change, don't you think, for a pensioner?

Remember this examination was not something I requested but was something the government told me I had to do and that I had to pay the doctor for it. 

Pensioners like myself, 80 next month, should not be required to pay a doctor any amount of money to have a checkup when we have our B.C. health coverage and have contributed to our province and our country for so many years.

There was no medical reason to send me for a medical checkup for a driver's licence. I had done nothing to demonstrate the need for me to have an examination.
Doctors should be required to report any patient they deem unfit or require medical examination for a driver's licence, and the BC Medical Plan should cover this examination. 

The government should not be sending people to the doctor for examination simply because of their age and requiring them to pay the doctor $248. This is called age discrimination and is unacceptable. 

I would like the B.C. Medical Services Plan to reimburse me the money I paid the doctor for this discriminatory examination. 

Thank you, 

Roger W. Currie, Surrey