PrintSeptember 5, 2009
Need an MRI Aided Diagnosis?
The Times Colonist, a newspaper in British Columbia, is reporting bad news from the Victorian Island Health Authority for residents seeking an MRI. Though already overwhelmed with demand, the health authority is looking to reduce usage of the expensive diagnostic device to make up a $45 million deficit:
The cuts likely mean patients will wait in pain even longer for treatment and surgery -- and already they are waiting twice as long as last year.
VIHA spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said patients are being booked for March, six months away, for elective MRI scans. Last year, wait times for MRI scans were only three months.
VIHA spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said patients are being booked for March, six months away, for elective MRI scans. Last year, wait times for MRI scans were only three months.
The Canadian government controls half the country’s GDP and still can’t find the money to adequately provide MRIs.
To give that failure perspective, it’s important to note that the British Columbian health care system carries a fraction of the complexity of a would-be Obamacare system. (The province has 12% the population of California and has a health budget of 1.6% of the CBO’s cost estimate of the health care overhaul.) Because America has one of the largest and most diverse populations on earth, Obama’s vision of health care “reform” has the potential for disaster on a scale beyond even the worst Canadian nightmare.
The Colonist report does have some good news. The wait times for elective surgeries are down about 50%. The bad news for Americans staring Obamacare in the face? The list of “elective” surgeries includes “things such as hips, knees and hearts.”
