Posted by Michael Wonder on 09 May 2018
B.C., where access to a wait-list is considered access to health care
8 May 2018 - Last month, the British Columbia government decided to get tough with private health-care clinics, announcing that after 1 October, serious fines and, potentially, fraud charges would be levied against operators engaged in “extra billing.”
The timing was odd, to say the least. The government is in court as we speak, trying to settle the question: Do private clinics have a legitimate and rightful role to play inside the Canadian health-care system? In other words, at issue is the very future of medicare.
It has been dragging on for months, thanks largely to the constant objections and counter-objections from a legion of lawyers representing various groups involved in the case. The trial had to be adjourned at one point, when the lead plaintiff, Dr. Brian Day, founder of the Cambie Surgery Centre, had to hunt for additional money to continue paying his counsel.
