The Vancouver Sun reports:
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.
…
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.
According to the leaked document, 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.
President Barack Obama says his health care plan will not lead to government rationing of health care, but government run health care systems around the world have had to control costs by doing just that. Conservatives in the House tried to pass amendments that would prevent the federal government from rationing health care under Obamacare, but they were all defeated. For example in the House Ways and Means Committee:
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) offered an amendment that would eliminate the public plan if its enrollees experienced longer wait times than the average wait times for enrollees in private health plans. These people would then be able to enroll in private health plans offered on the Health Insurance Exchange. The Brady amendment failed on a straight party-line vote.
