A Manitoba man is relieved the province changed its tune and partially reimbursed him for an out-of-country surgery after previously refusing to pick up the tab.
Tom Molinski, 69, recently got a cheque in the mail for $23,908.99 from Manitoba Health — about a third of what he spent on a spinal fusion surgery in Germany in 2024 — after a meeting with Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara in May.
Though he isn’t being reimbursed the full $77,000 he paid out of his retirement savings, Molinski said he is glad to finally get some of the costs covered.
“If they said, ‘Well, here’s $2,000 or $3,000,’ that would have been an insult to me, so this would be a fair amount,” he told CBC News over the weekend. “I’m happy with it.”
The payment comes after a drawn-out dispute involving Molinski, Manitoba Health and the Manitoba Health Appeal Board that stretches back to before Molinski felt he had to resort to leaving the province for surgery in the first place.
Molinski’s quality of life dramatically declined over a few years to the point he could no longer pick up his young grandkids, mow the lawn or grocery shop.
He previously said his spinal pain became so severe he “had to crawl from the bedroom to the bathroom” and also suffered from incontinence. The latter is considered a severe or extreme symptom warranting interventions, including surgery, in the case of some spinal patients.
Assessment challenges
But Molinski faced a variety of barriers to care, including a set of phone calls with a physiotherapist who declined to examine him in person, he said.
“Where this whole thing went sideways is the two phone calls from the physiotherapist from the spine assessment clinic that said I wasn’t a candidate,” Molinski said. “That’s what I told the minister.”
Molinski got two second opinions — one from another Canadian jurisdiction, and another in Germany — that agreed he was a candidate for spinal fusion therapy.
He travelled to Germany for the procedure in fall 2024.
But Molinski didn’t get the required preapprovals from a local expert and Manitoba Health before doing that, so when he filed an expense claim for $77,000, Manitoba Health refused to pay.
He filed an appeal.
The Manitoba Health Appeal Board — an arm’s-length organization meant to provide some recourse for patients unhappy with certain health-care related decisions — published a decision in the case last fall that didn’t identify Molinski as the patient in question.
The board agreed Molinski’s experience navigating the Manitoba system was “deeply concerning” and that his condition “required surgery without delay.”
It identified a list of barriers that validated his reasoning for going out-of-province for care.
That included the fact Molinski didn’t have access to a local specialist, and so couldn’t get a referral to get care elsewhere. He also made attempts through his family physician, the Pan Am Pain Clinic, at a hospital and through the Manitoba Spine Clinic, the board noted.
The October 2025 decision also said Molinski’s case was unique because of the “severe impact” his “extreme deterioration” had on his quality of life and mental state, and the fact his referral took four years to address due to it being lost by his former primary care physician.
The board urged the health minister to consider reimbursing Molinski after reviewing the case in detail and asked them to respond to the board report.
The minister’s office was originally given a deadline for late December but was granted an extension.
In early May, Molinski got his second rejection letter from Manitoba Health, reiterating some of the department’s initial reasons for denying his claim, including its argument he didn’t follow requirements under the Health Services Insurance Act and related regulations.
“Dealing with these people was stressful,” Molinski said Saturday.
“The appeal board, that process was fine, but … when Health, Seniors and Long Term Care still denied it, even though the appeal board sided with me, I just couldn’t understand it.”
In an interview with CBC News after that rejection, Asagwara acknowledged there were issues with Molinski’s case. They said they planned to meet with him and were open to potentially compensating him to some degree for his troubles.
In a statement to CBC this week, a provincial spokesperson said “where there are exceptional or extenuating factors, a review may determine whether any reimbursement is appropriate.”
The figure the government arrived at is essentially what the spinal fusion procedure would’ve cost were it performed in Manitoba, the spokesperson said in a statement.
Manitobans are encouraged “to work with their health-care providers and Manitoba Health to explore treatment options and approvals before seeking care outside the province,” the statement said.
Molinski said he left his meeting with the health minister in May feeling like they were “sincere” about helping him, and the payment shows that. However, he’s still curious as to exactly how Manitoba Health arrived at the $23,908.99 figure, and said he has asked for a breakdown.
He believes the province needs to continue signing off on a limited number of out-of-province surgeries, when the system can’t meet the needs of patients like him due to wait times or other barriers.
“People should be compensated,” he said. “This took far too long — far too long.”
