Coming Soon

Well America, here is our future If JHE and the Dims get their way. Thanks to PeggyU for the link.

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.

So let me get this straight. Medicare and Medicaid are broke. So the Dims solution is to expand them to cover everybody. Make no mistake. They might not get it this time, but they will keep trying until they do. That is their endgame. When that happens, we'll see stories like this in our country. Then again, maybe we won't. At least not on the LSM.

Why would you want the same people responsible for the sub-prime mess to design a health care system?

“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.

Don't worry. We're the gummint. You can trust us. We're not gonna fuck you over. This is just a planning document that you rubes were not supposed to see. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

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.

Dr. Brodie, you don't understand how gummint works do you? Politicians always cut important stuff so they can get our attention. That justifies the tax increases that are coming down the pike.

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.

The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.

Get ready Seattle. You're about to get an influx of people coming from Vancouver to get medical treatment. Sorry Canada. In a few more years we won't be able to help you out. We'll be cutting services and rationing health care in this county as well.

And we'll have done it to ourselves.

Update: Dick sent me this video that addresses this.

He says the same thing that I said. Medicare and Medicaid are all broke and the Dims want to fix them by expanding them to cover everyone.

Posted by denny at August 20, 2009 01:56 PM