Posted on 08/19/2009 5:06:19 AM PDT by WhiteCastle
VANCOUVER — Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.
Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.
“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”
The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but said it represents ideas only.
“It is a planning document. It has not been approved or implemented,” said spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.
Dr. Brian Brodie, president of the BC Medical Association, called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.”
“Why would you begin your cost-cutting measures on medically necessary surgery? I just can’t think of a worse place,” Brodie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...
Bump!
WOW! Can’t wait for NBC to report this expose on the failures of socialism!
or, it is a trial balloon.
But what it CERTAINLY is, is (weird saying 'is' two times in a row, don't know why) something for those still saying there is no rationing in HR3200 to come around.
And this is exactly at what we’re looking at. Restricting medical care to save money.
So much for free healthcare.
Every time someone tries to tell me how wonderful Canadian health care is, I tell them the story of my torn rotator cuff (w/ beginning frozen shoulder)a few years back.
It took a whole 2 1/2 weeks to see my GP, get an MRI, see a sports orthopedic surgeon, get additional x-rays, be evaluated for PT (determined I didn’t need surgery), and start PT... and it took that long in the US because it was right around the Christmas and New Years holidays.
If I lived in Canada, waiting for the MRI alone, I would have developed such a frozen shoulder w/ resulting muscle atrophy, I would most likely ended up with a useless right arm.
IIRC Many states in the US have more MRI machines than all of Canada.
This will be our future under ObamaCare or as I like to refer to it ZeroCare.
Ooooohhh...it's only an IDEA...well that makes it ok!
So the government wants to punish bigots who don't actually commit a crime, because ideas can be dangerous.
But when the government comes up with dangerous ideas, it's just "brainstorming"...
You bring up a very good point that gets lost in the shuffle. A government funded health system will inherently seek to save money, just like any private insurance company. Worse yet, in a government funded system, there is no incentive to MAKE money, i.e., to innovate or, God forbid, order tests that, in hindsight, may be unnecessary. Are unnecessary tests a bad thing? Fiscally, yes, but would you rather have a system that errs on the side of caution towards the patient, or one that errs on the side of caution toward its balance sheet?
This Vancouver report demonstrates exactly why bureaucrats should be outlawed from administering healthcare. They can’t even prioritize spending cuts to protect the patients more in need than others.
It ain’t rocket science.
they need to convene a death panel to rank the recipients of these surgeries from most valuable to least valuable in order to better make these cuts.
A gouvernment funded Health system will seek to save money... and on the other hand will waste a lot of money for too much unappropriate cares for libtard clients!
This is the liberal(fascist)mismanagement with political purposes
On the other hand, in a classic case of Projection, it is the NDP (Socialist Party) critic who has “leaked” the “idea.” The government in BC is currently run by the conservative party (which happens to be called the Liberal Party).
Smells a lot like the threats of Police and Firemen being the first to be cut when cities run into budget shortfalls.
bump
And yet, that's one of the arguments FOR government health care, that the government won't make cost cutting decisions like private insurance might. Those that really think that are deluding themselves.
With *free* healthcare, people are going to go for every little thing because they don't have to pay for it. As it is, there are plenty on welfare already who use the ER as their doctor's office and go there just because they have a sore throat or tooth ache in the middle of the night, instead of taking care of it during the day like other responsible, reasonable people (been there, seen that- for real)
I'm against government funded anything, but in the worst case scenario, if the government really felt that it had to help people without insurance, there are so many other better options than making a mandatory, restrictive, burdensome health care system like the one they're proposing.
FWIW, I've never had our insurance deny us coverage.
I am assuming that these people are free to go to Washington state and pay for good care out of their own pockets?
Yessssss we need to have a health care system like Canada’s and England’s systems. Wonderful!
thanks, bfl
Not only that, but many CITIES in the United States have more MRI machines than all of Canada. Does anyone know of a single major hospital that doesn’t have an MRI machine?
Thank you metmom. Adding to link ping. FRegards ....
Hospitals?
I’ve been to a doctors main office that even has one. It’s an orthopedic practice, and they have what they need to treat fractures and diagnose on the spot.
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