The Vancouver Sun is reporting that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is planning to cut back on the number of surgeries performed in the Vancouver Metro area. The health authority is estimating that 6,000 surgeries (including neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures) will need to be scrapped to cover a budget shortfall of over 200 million.
According to the article ,
“…Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.
The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.
As many of 112 full-time jobs — including 13 anesthesiologist positions — would be affected by the reductions, the document says.
“Clearly this will impact the capacity of the health-care system to provide care, not just now but in the future,” Dix said.
Further reductions in surgeries are scheduled during the Olympics, when the health authority plans to close approximately a third of its operating rooms.
Two weeks ago, Dix released a Fraser Health Authority draft communications plan listing proposed clinical care cuts, including a 10-per-cent cut in elective surgeries and longer waits for MRI scans.
The move comes after the province acknowledged all health authorities together will be forced to cut staff, limit some services and increase fees to find $360 million in savings during the current fiscal year.”
Why are many in our country pushing for a system similar to this? How would you feel if you were a Canadian and were told that your necessary surgery was canceled, because the government doesn’t have enough money to pay for it? Other countries with socialized health care are facing similar problems. Look at the much celebrated French system. In the year 2000, it received the #1 ranking by the World Health Organization (the ranking system weighed patient satisfaction more heavily than actual medical results, tipping the scales in favor of countries with “free” health care, so it may not be the most accurate measurement). Unfortunately, it has been in the red since 1989. The Wall Street Journal, in an article about the French system, reports that, “This year the annual shortfall is expected to reach €9.4 billion ($13.5 billion), and €15 billion in 2010, or roughly 10% of its budget.” If the French system continues to have rising deficits, it will eventually be completely bankrupt. The British system is facing the same fate.
Why are so many Americans willing to go down this same road? I think one reasons is that many people mistakenly believe socialized medicine means free health care. This is simply not true. The people still pay for their health care, but they pay it in the form of taxes on their income and everything they buy. This can easily be seen in the price of gasoline. In the US, the average cost for a gallon of gas, as of Aug 10, 2009, is$2.88. In the UK, it’s $6.46. In Belgium, it’s $7.04. In France, it’s $6.84, and in Germany, it’s $7.06. All of these European countries have a socialized health care system with “free” health care for their people, yet they pay more that double the amount in fuel to drive to work every day. Their health care may be “free”, but everything else costs a whole lot more.
Our current health care system is expensive, but there are many ways to lower costs without having a government takeover. The government can’t efficiently run the post office, the VA system, the Cash for Clunkers program, Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security. So why are people ready to let them try their hand at health care?
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BINGO! You’d have to be a dufus to think this wouldn’t happen! We have plenty of examples of this in other countries and yet they are oddly absent from the “press.”
Well said. The left ignores evidence of the failures of socialism (or is that simply intentional?). They will deny that this is a problem. Then, if this nonsense passes, and these problems occur here, they’ll blame Conservatives!