Big Bravo! Cambie Surgery Centre (owner Brian Day) loses at BC Supreme Court; ordinary Canadians win big! Are American rape-the-people’s-health-care-for-profit corporations and Kenney-Shandro-Harper-et-al-wanna-destroy-public-health twisting in fury?

The ruling: Cambie Surgeries Corporation v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2020 BCSC 1310

Did the mega rich fail to buy BC’s Supreme Court? Or did they buy Canada’s Supreme Court instead because Day said there’ll be an appeal? I do not trust Canada’s judicial industry, not for one second, notably not the judges on Canada’s Supreme Court. Intentionally publishling lies in rulings and pissing on our Charter to enable the law-violating AER shattered any credibility the top court may have had. I fear what Day, Harper-Kenney-Shandro and the American corporate profit-rapers have up their galling selfish rotten sleeves.

These tweets sum the case up:

Colleen M. Flood@ColleenFlood2
After a marathon 3.5 years at trial & 101 witnesses (2 whom died before conclusion) it’s a win for public medicare in the Cambie case w/-Justice Steeves – in a 880 pg decision – finding that laws limiting a 2-tier system do not contravene the Charter of Rights & Freedoms.

Mark Anderson@MylifefrNerzhul
So gross that this doctor fooled so many into entertaining the idea of undermining our public system so he can selfishly profit. Gross doctor and a gross case.

Private Vancouver clinic loses constitutional challenge of public health-care rules, Dr. Brian Day had argued patients have the right to pay for private care if public system is too slow by CBC News with files from The Canadian Press, Sept 10, 2020

The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a years-long court challenge of public health-care rules in B.C. that claimed the province’s health-care system denies patients the right to timely care.

The constitutional challenge launched by private health-care advocate Dr. Brian Day, the owner of the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver, claimed that prolonged wait times for medical procedures violated two charter rights, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

Day argued patients have a constitutional right to pay for private care when wait times in the public system are too long.

Day opened the Cambie Surgery Centre in 1996 and launched court action against the B.C. government in 2009 over sections of the Medicare Protection Act. It prohibits doctors from billing the government for work they do in the public system while also earning money from private clinics as well as billing patients or their insurance companies.

Justice John J. Steeves dismissed both charter claims, noting that B.C.’s Medicare Protection Act is focused on medically necessary care, not ability to pay.

Private clinics would harm ‘ordinary’ people using public system in B.C., says government lawyer

Opponents have said a two-tier system would favour patients who are wealthy enough to pay for “queue-jumping” private insurance, as well as doctors who could bill both the public and private systems.

Lawyers argued universality of health-care at stake

Lawyers for both the B.C. and federal governments have argued such a system would erode Canada’s universal health-care system and negatively impact patients with complex chronic conditions and the elderly.

While the court ruled against Day, Steeves did find that surgical patients are not receiving care in a timely manner, and that these lengthy wait times for surgery result in prolonged pain and suffering for patients.

“Some of these patients will experience prolonging and exacerbation of pain and diminished functionality as well as increased risk of not gaining full benefit from surgery,” Steeves wrote.

Day has not commented on the decision but has said in the past he anticipated an appeal.

At a news conference Thursday, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province is delighted with the decision.

Health care battle in judge’s hands but expected to land in Canada’s top court

“The ruling emphasizes the strength and the importance of public heath care, which is a cornerstone of our identity in British Columbia,” he said.

Dix pointed to one section of the 800-page ruling highlighting testimony from physicians who declared surgical wait times have been improving in recent years, and that the province has implemented measures to successfully reduce them.

A report released last year suggests that wait times have been improving in B.C. since 2014 —  although it also found B.C. patients wait longer for key medical procedures than other Canadians.

‘A historic win’

The B.C. Health Coalition was among the intervenors in the case. Edith MacHattie, co-chair of the coalition, said she started crying once the decision was released.

“[The case] has been the most serious attack against our public health-care system that we’ve ever seen,” she told CBC News. “What [Steeves] has really done is uphold our existing medicare laws and really confirming that they’re in the best interest of everyone in B.C.”

Dr. Danyaal Raza, Chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, another intervenor in the case, suggests had the decision gone the other way, wait times for public health care would have gotten longer — not shorter.

“We don’t have an unlimited supply of doctors and nurses, so if you take some of them out of the public system, and reserve them just for small number of people that can pay to get care at the front of the line, then there’s fewer folks left over to care more people waiting in the public health care system,” he said. 

In a statement, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions called the ruling “a historic win for Canada’s public health-care system.”

Looking to the future

While the decision marks a significant moment in the history of Canadian health care, some members of the community say there is still much more work to be done to improve treatment.

In response to the judgement, the B.C. Anesthesiologists’ Society said it’s time for the province to commit to Patient Wait Time Guarantees.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Medical Association says healthcare funding has not kept pace with efforts to improve funding for an aging population.

“An increased investment to address these issues would ensure that Canadians have wide-ranging access to the health care they need, when and where they need it,” said Dr. Ann Collins in a statement.

A few of the comments:

Ian Malcomson
I agree with the ruling because it means that no private operator can offer special treatment to those who can afford it. Let’s keep the single payer model because it certainly works infinitely better than anything south of the border. Thanks, Tommy Douglas, back then for the vision. By the way, my wife recently got timely surgery without waiting longer than a month.

Joe smith
No Private Care in Canada. If you don’t want to wait and are willing to pay to get faster treatments go to Murica. They will gladly accept your money.

Bob Smith
I think if you look at the published history of Brian Day you would have concerns.

He has freely admitted to using his influence in the public system to expedite treatment for family members ahead of the public.

I cannot support this man or his proposal in anyway. http://www.nationalpost.com/doctor+admits+queue+jump/141706/story.html

Cade Hern
Wait. So he wants to bill the public health care system for the services rendered in his private clinic and then charge his patients as well on the side? The extra is an entrance fee I guess for being able to jump the queue

Paul Underhill
Absolute Classic – Dr. Day benefited from socialized public medical schools,
but then he turned around and wanted to privatize health care.
Its a good thing the BC Supreme Court dismissed his challenge.

Lily O’Loughlin
Good. No queue jumping. Wait in line like everybody else does. People want to pay for faster care when it suits them and then take advantage of the publicly-funded system as well.

Mackenna Wilson
The case was never about protecting Canadians or offering superior care, it was about Brian Day having the option to make huge profits of of illness. It was also proven that countries that have two tiered health care have longer waiting lists for patients who aren’t rich and can’t afford to jump queues. If you want that kind of system, move south and pay huge amounts of private insurance and go bankrupt trying to afford a heart operation.

Mike Wilson Wilson Bergen Reply to @Mackenna Wilson:

Yes, and behind David Day is a pantheon of organized, for profit “health care” companies in the US salivating at the $40 billion a year they want to siphon out of Canadians.

John McInerney
This is an eminently sensible decision. Approving private clinics would have simply widened the already huge gap between the wealthy and those less well off. The door is still open to the wealthy to purchase medical services in other countries but, thankfully not in CANADA !! BRAVO.

Don Schwa
This is a BIG WIN for the health care of Canadians. The vast majority of us would suffer in a for-profit regime such as we see States-side, both medically and financially.

Mary Anderson
If people want to pay for healthcare, go to the United States. Simple.

David Novak Reply to @Aaron Morris: It has long been understood that medical bills cause more than a quarter of US personal bankruptcies. It is an open guess because it is hard to research, especially if one doesn’t want to know, but untold throngs of US citizens simply avoid medical care or medications because they simply cannot afford it. Who knows how many die prematurely due to lack of medical care, the number is probably staggering.

No thanks. We shouldn’t make public policy to help those who simply do not need any help. The rich can fend for themselves.

Barry Bondar
Good news for those Canadians that want less America in Canada … 😉 …

Paul Underhill

Its a good thing the BC Supreme Court dismissed Dr. Day’s challenge.
If Canadians ended up with a dual public – private Health Care system,
guess where the bulk of the money would have gone ?
Corporations would have been lining up to cash in.
The first question at the medical clinic would have been :
Who is your health care provider, and what coverage do you have ?

Mike Wilson Wilson Bergen Reply to @Paul Underhill:

Yup.

Universal health care costs what it costs.

Private health care costs what it costs, plus profit markup, plus insurance companies (staff buildings profit), plus insurance companies interfering in decisions leading to worse care, plus people who are completely uninsured.

The US system is the Most Expensive in the world, with lousy outcomes for the middle class and poor. It’s only a good system if you are really, really rich.

People lose their houses every day because they got sick and maxed out their insurance, in the US.

No thanks.

Jed Took
Universal Health Care is a universal human right; if it is too slow then we should tax the billionaires who hide their profits in tax havens abroad—they are the ones who benefit from a healthy workforce after all

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