Private Healthcare comes to BC

[x-zipperhead]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/22/private-clinic20041122.html

http://www.copemanhealthcare.com/costs.htm


There is no doubt that this clinic will provide a different level of care. 

Should someone be able to buy better access while still having the public system pick up the tab for all medically necessary diagnostics and treatment?

Should the membership fees be tax deductible? ( which Copeman claims they are )

They want to open lots more across the country.  Will this relieve pressure on the public system or bleed it of it's professionals?


Thoughts?

 

[Brad Sallows]

>Should someone be able to buy better access while still having the public system pick up the tab for all medically necessary diagnostics and treatment?

Yes.

>Should the membership fees be tax deductible? ( which Copeman claims they are )

No.  Not unless I get a deduction for my fitness club membership and my vitamin purchases and so forth.

>They want to open lots more across the country.  Will this relieve pressure on the public system or bleed it of it's professionals?

Yes and somewhat.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

When a politician can jump the line and go right to the front as soon as he has chest pains, the system is already multi tierd. The idea of universal health care and equal access for all is an absolute myth. Our system is a lie, that is trotted out by the politicians when they need the utopian tree hugger vote. I want Mcguinty and the Feds to give me back my premium and health taxes and I'll invest it in an HMO that will give me service when I need it, and how I want it.

 

[larry Strong]

Private Healthcare has been around from the start, as doctors are a Private business or corporation.

 

[x-zipperhead]

When a politician can jump the line and go right to the front as soon as he has chest pains, the system is already multi tierd.

When did that happen and who was it?  I've never heard about that.  I'd be curious to know how that would be explained to be justified.

I fail to understand what the issue is. Maybe I'll go hug a tree or kiss a beaver or something...possibly I'll have the lefty wisdom passed on to me by doing so.   

I agree with you that there is something fundamentally wrong with not allowing an ill person to seek out the care they need, using there own means, if the public system cannot help them in a time period they require for their health or survival. Allowing private healthcare is certainly one solution to that and that will help a portion of the population.  Another solution is to restore the public system to a state where someone isn't faced with that dilemma.

BTW I'd go with hugging the tree if I were you, those beavers can be vicious. ;D

Private Healthcare has been around from the start, as doctors are a Private business or corporation.

Yes but they are paid by the province, don't set their own fees, and reach a maximum amount of hours they can bill in a year ( around $400,00 in Ontario I believe. I could be wrong. )  Hardly seems like a private business, to me anyway.

 

[RangerRay]

The only other countries that have 100% government monopoly such as ours are Cuba and North Korea, hardly examples of medical efficiency.

Canada is amongst the top few countries in terms of health care funding, but amongst the bottom of industrialised countries in terms of health outcomes and waiting lists.  In most industrialised nations, there is no such thing as "waiting lists" for medically neccessary treatment.

We should adopt a public/private system like those found in France, Germany, Holland or Switzerland, where health care expenditures are less, outcomes are healthier, waiting lists are non-existent, and people still have their healthcare publicly funded.

Even when the "American healthcare bogeyman" is bandied about, people fail to realise that under their system, they would probably pay less in private health insurance premiums than the average British Columbia pays in MSP premiums.