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Medicare: It's got us covered

Who's defending your Medicare?

 

Is our provincial government truly committed to defending public health care in the courts?  It has a duty to do so on behalf of all British Columbians in response to the BC Supreme Court case launched by a consortium of private for-profit clinics led by the for-profit Cambie Surgery Centre run by Dr. Brian Day.

The clinics are suing the government and aiming to have key provisions of our provincial health legislation declared unconstitutional so that they can sell necessary health services to patients who can afford to pay a premium to jump the queue and open up BC to US-style health insurance.

Now, Health Minister Kevin Falcon has appointed Kip Woodward—a former Board member of Cambie Surgery Centre and whose family investment firm, Woodcorp Investments Ltd., remains an investor—as chair of Vancouver Coastal Health—the province’s second largest health authority.

Mr. Woodward is a known advocate of privatized, for-profit health care. In fact, last fall as Chair of Providence Health Care he wrote letters to Minister Falcon on Woodcorp letterhead outlining numerous “competition”, “revenue generating” and “cost recovery” schemes that could not possibly avoid violating Medicare’s principles of accessibility and universality and that would further advance the interests of for-profit health care investors.

We need to start asking serious questions.

  • Cambie Surgery, the clinic in which Woodward is invested, is the very same clinic heading the constitutional challenge to Medicare.
  • Cambie Surgery and others like it stand to benefit enormously from "patient focused funding" and other schemes that the government is implementing.
  • The very government that is supposed to be defending Medicare against this lawsuit is now appointing for-profit health care proponents to run our Medicare system that is supposed to work for the benefit of everyone.

We need to be certain that the government is truly committed to the principles of public health care. The appointment of Woodward and other players should raise serious concerns about this commitment.

The BC Health Coalition encourages you to take action and demand that Minister Falcon take a strong stand in defending provincial health legislation from the legal challenge launched by private for-profit clinic operators in B.C. - this will ensure that we have a health care system that works for all.

TAKE ACTION!

CLICK HERE to send a letter now!


Background Information:

Read the recent BCHC News Release on the Woodward Appointment.

Recent news articles about for-profit clinics:

Other resources on private clinics: