Alberta mother hopes health care nightmare changes system

An Alberta mother is confident her experience with steep medical bills in Ontario will help change the system for the better.

After receiving national media attention, Amy Savill received a call from Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman that her home province, and Ontario, would pay off her $8,200 bill for an Ornge air ambulance trip from Timmins to Sudbury.

Savill was at a family reunion at a campground near Timmins when her water broke two months early.

She was rushed to the hospital, but because her child was premature, she needed to be flown to Sudbury where Health Sciences North's neonatal unit could care for her.

Savill's daughter Amelia, was born in Sudbury July 20, around 12 hours after her journey started.

But after her daughter's birth, Savill found out her Alberta health insurance would not cover the cost of air ambulance trip to Sudbury.

“All Albertans, including seniors, must pay the cost of emergency ambulance services and inter-facility transfers when travelling outside Alberta, because these services are not covered by inter-provincial reciprocal health care agreements,” says the Alberta Health Services website.

Some provinces cover inter-provincial costs like air ambulance trips, while others don't.

Savill said her experience, and the publicity she has received, might change that.

“It's my understanding they're having negotiations to fix that gap with all the provinces don't have the reciprocal exchange,” she said during at press conference at Health Sciences North Wednesday. “Us having to go through this is not what anybody wants to experience, but the fact that we can be part of that change, and other people don't have to go through it, that's a really good feeling.”

Savill said her experience in Sudbury has been positive, but she is anxious to return home to High Prairie Alberta, north of Edmonton.

“This is a lovely town,” Savill said. “If you're going to be stuck anywhere come to Sudbury. There's so much to do and the people are wonderful.”

While her daughter Amelia is healthy, because she was born two months premature she would need a special flight, with a neonatal nurse and monitoring equipment, to return home.

That flight could cost around $50,000, Savill said.

A charitable organization called Global Angel has taken up Savill's cause, and through donations has raised around $20,000 so far to cover the flight back to Alberta.