At 65 the province starts paying most of your prescription costs, and physiotherapy it funds opens up with no referral. At 80 the thing that changes is your driver's licence, not your health coverage. Everything in between — medication, balance, memory — is an ordinary appointment, and it goes faster if you bring the medication itself.
What the visit covers
- Every medication reviewed, including whether you still need all of them
- Unsteadiness: balance, footwear and what is behind it
- Memory and concentration worries, yours or a relative's
- Which vaccines you become eligible for at 65 and at 75, and where to get them
- Funded physiotherapy from 65, which you can arrange yourself
- Referrals for specialist assessment
- Forms and medical reports — ring the desk first to check what is completed here, and the fee
What changes at 65
Prescriptions. There is no form for this one: you are in the Ontario Drug Benefit from the 1st of the month following your 65th birthday. Covered is not the same as free — the first $100 of drug costs in each program year is yours, and after that each prescription can cost up to $6.11. The program year starts on 1 August. If your annual net income is $25,480 or less on your own, or $42,290 combined as a couple, the Seniors Co-Payment Program drops the $100 and caps the charge at $2 a prescription; those are the figures for the year running 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027. That one you do apply for, from up to three months before your 65th birthday — and if you are claiming back drugs you already paid for in the previous program year, the cut-off to apply is 30 September.
Physiotherapy the province pays for. At 65 you become eligible for government-funded physiotherapy, and since June 2024 nobody needs a referral for it: you pick a clinic off Ontario's list of funded clinics, phone it yourself, and the assessment happens there. A doctor can still refer you if you would rather have it that way. If getting out of the house is the problem, Ontario Health atHome arranges physiotherapy at home, along with nursing and personal support, on 1-833-515-1234. Ontario's target for 65 and over is at least 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous activity a week, and Health811 or INFOline on 1-888-910-1999 will tell you which exercise and falls-prevention classes are running near you.
Vaccines, and the one window that closes. The publicly funded shingles vaccine is a two-dose series for ages 65 to 70, and only for people who have not already had a publicly funded shingles dose — paying for a dose of Zostavax II yourself in the past does not disqualify you. Pneumococcal vaccine joins the funded list at 65 and RSV at 75. The free shingles doses can be given in a doctor's or nurse practitioner's office, or at a pharmacy taking part, so ask the desk whether a particular shot happens here or on a prescription you take elsewhere.
What OHIP covers
OHIP pays for the visit itself at any age, as long as it is medically necessary. Medication is a separate system, the Ontario Drug Benefit. Paperwork is a third thing again: a form or a report can carry a fee, and a physician has to tell you the amount before doing the work, so ask at the desk when you book.
Walk in, or book?
Phone and book, and say what it is about: a medication or memory review needs time set aside, and you can ask the desk whether a longer appointment is possible. A new fall or a fever that started this week is what walking in is for. A fall that knocked you out, or one you cannot stand up after, is an emergency department.
What to bring
- Everything in the medicine cabinet, including what you have stopped taking and are not sure about
- Patches, eye drops, creams, inhalers and vitamins — the things that get left off lists
- The name and address of your pharmacy
- Your signed MedsCheck record, if a pharmacist has done one with you
- Whoever notices the day-to-day changes, if memory or hearing is the reason for the visit
- Any hospital discharge summary or specialist letter from the past year
Questions people ask
Is there anything a doctor has to sign for my licence at 80?
Not to begin with. From 80 the licence renews every two years and the renewal is done at ServiceOntario. Before you can book the appointment you watch the ministry's senior driver education video and go through the Driver's Handbook. At the session there is a vision assessment and a five-minute screening exercise — you draw a clock face and set the hands to 10:11, which measures how you take in and organize information. No road test is part of it, although one can be asked for afterwards if the session raises something. Two things bring a clinic into it. A vision report from an eye doctor with complete results, signed or dated no more than six months before the session and showing a measurement for acuity and peripheral vision, means no vision screening is needed at the session. And if more medical information is needed after the session, the ministry notifies you by mail.
I take nine pills a day. Who sits down and goes through them?
Your pharmacist can, free, once a year. Ontario's MedsCheck covers anyone taking three or more prescription medications for an ongoing, chronic condition, anyone diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes even without diabetes medication, and any resident of a long-term care home. At the end of it you and the pharmacist sign and date a personal medication record, and you are meant to bring that record to appointments and hospital visits. Book one, then bring the record in with the medication itself — a list somebody has already checked is a much faster start.
My mother is forgetting things. Where do we start?
With her own doctor, and with somebody in the room who sees her every day — what has changed over six months is the most useful thing in that appointment, and she may not be the one who has noticed it. Ask the desk for a longer appointment when you book, and say what it is about. If wandering is the worry, Ontario has two things for it: Finding Your Way, run by the Alzheimer Society of Ontario to keep people with dementia safe if they wander or become lost, and MedicAlert Safe and Found, whose blue bracelet marks dementia and links to health information first responders are trained to look for.
I have started stumbling. Is that just age?
Treat it as a reason to book. In Canada, falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations among older adults, and most of what causes one can be changed. A falls assessment goes through the medications that make you dizzy or drop your blood pressure, your blood pressure sitting and then standing, your vision, your feet and your footwear, and what is on the floor at home — loose rugs, cords, poor lighting, the step you take a run at. Say on the phone that you have started stumbling, so the appointment is made for that.
Still have a question? Call the front desk.
Related
- Chronic care for diabetes, blood pressure and asthmaDiabetes, blood pressure, asthma, heart
- Prescription renewalsBring the bottle or a photo of the label
- Flu shots and routine immunizationsFlu shots in season, routine vaccines
