How a service provided by any sane/rational/enlightened government ever ended up as some kind of rights discussion is beyond baffling.

You misunderstand what a right is.

A right is inherent in the person and contained within the person.

It is not granted by government and while it can be infringed by government it cannot be taken away.

The problem with seeing healthcare as a right is that it infringes on someone else's rights if they do not wish to provide you with that healthcare.

If you have a right to healthcare then you have a right to force a doctor to provide it to you and you have a right to force me to pay for it.

If you can force other people to satisfy this perverse interpretation of a right then what's to stop someone from kicking you out of your house because their right to housing trumps your mere ownership of a home?

Can we force farmers to work to satisfy someone else's right to food? Because it worked so well in the Soviet Union and in Venezuela?

See, your rights end at the place where anyone else's rights begin.

Therefore you do have the right to do all sorts of things without interference from others but you have no right to force other people to provide you with healthcare, food, housing, or anything else.

Capish?

If I am a great doctor and I wish to charge $1500 an hour for my services that's my right as a doctor.

You don't have to use my services.

But when you create a legal artifice to force me to work for less money than what I wish to charge then you are using the force of government to infringe my rights.

And the result in Canada is that your best and brightest medical students are departing for the USA where it's easier to get into school, easier to obtain a residency, and it's a whole fuckload more profitable all the way around as compared to Canada. Taxes are lower in the USA, regulatory costs are lower, and you can pick whatever specialty you prefer.

https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/ ... of_an_end/

If the shortage keeps up then sooner or later I fully anticipate that Canada will start creating laws to prevent doctors from leaving Canada and I expect you'll also impose laws prohibiting doctors from retiring early.

Because the proof that there's no "right" to healthcare will be amply illustrated when there's no one left to provide it.

Your (belief in your) right to choose to not have your tax dollars help anyone doesn't wipe out the government's obligation to provide services to help those who need it. That "promote the general welfare" part of your nation's constitution effectively means that the government isn't allowed to stand idle and do nothing in the face of the suffering of any American citizen. You can argue endlessly on how that service is to be provided but you simply cannot say that the government isn't allowed to do it at all.

So following this logic....does this mean you don't have a right to own guns after all?

If I am a great doctor and I wish to charge $1500 an hour for my services that's my right as a doctor.

You don't have to use my services.

But when you create a legal artifice to force me to work for less money than what I wish to charge then you are using the force of government to infringe my rights.

And the result in Canada is that your best and brightest medical students are departing for the USA where it's easier to get into school, easier to obtain a residency, and it's a whole fuckload more profitable all the way around as compared to Canada. Taxes are lower in the USA, regulatory costs are lower, and you can pick whatever specialty you prefer.

https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/ ... of_an_end/

If the shortage keeps up then sooner or later I fully anticipate that Canada will start creating laws to prevent doctors from leaving Canada and I expect you'll also impose laws prohibiting doctors from retiring early.

Because the proof that there's no "right" to healthcare will be amply illustrated when there's no one left to provide it.

Yeah the Death Panels have also ruled that doctors shoving things up a patient's ass is an abomination against God.

Where do you Yanks come up with this bullshit?

You not only get colonoscopies, they even have classes for those who are nervous about getting one. Also free of charge!

We also have an alternative to colonoscopy, where you just become a conservative and then shove your head up your ass. But USA is the leader in providing that treatment

March 31, 2017

British Columbia’s four-year-old colorectal cancer screening program continues to have growing pains as it’s plagued by resource shortages that grossly impair patients’ access to timely colonoscopies.

Last week, John Naismith, 61, drove to Revelstoke for a colonoscopy because the wait time in Kelowna, where he lives, is seven months, even for patients like him who had an abnormal stool test, previous pre-cancerous polyps and a family history of colon cancer.

Through colonoscopies, doctors can see and remove polyps that can lead to cancer. The Colon Screening Program is recommended for people aged 50 to 74. Screening starts with a stool test and if it is positive (blood in stool), a colonoscopy follows. In Interior Health, the wait time for colonoscopies is more than three times longer than the two-month maximum recommended by the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.

Naismith had a positive stool test in January and, during his colonoscopy last week, one polyp was removed. It will now be biopsied. Naismith’s wife, Arlie, tried everything to get the colonoscopy done on an expedited basis in Kelowna, even going so far as to complain to the Interior Health Patient Care Quality Office.

She said she learned that they could pay $2,315 to have the procedure done quickly in a Kelowna private clinic. But if the couple wanted the procedure done in a public hospital more quickly, they were told by Interior Health that they could go to hospitals in either Williams Lake or Revelstoke where there aren’t such long wait times. The drive to Revelstoke took just under three hours from Kelowna.

“What kind of health care is this? How many people will die on wait lists? Why do we have such low standards in B. C.? What about people who can’t drive in winter or can’t afford to pay for these procedures privately?” said Arlie Naismith, who moved with her husband to B.C. from Ontario, where she said a colon cancer screening program seems to be more efficient, with no such wait times.

​
According to data provided by the B.C. Ministry of Health, two thirds of B.C. patients being screened through the program and who need a colonoscopy are getting them within 60 days. Those in the Vancouver Coastal Health region are faring best, with 78 per cent getting the procedures completed within two months, while just over a third of those in the Interior are meeting such guidelines.

Ministry spokesman Stephen May said the government is aware that in some parts of the province, “there are patients who may be waiting longer than expected, and that this can be unsettling when waiting for a followup test.”

B.C. residents can access colonoscopies two ways: through the colon cancer screening program managed by the B.C. Cancer Agency or through a referral to a specialist who will assess the need for such a procedure. The procedures must be done by general surgeons or gastroenterologists in hospital endoscopy suites, with patients receiving some sedation.

In some ways, the screening program is a victim of its own success, straining available hospital resources. Since the launch of the program, colonoscopies have increased by 25 per cent — from 99,800 in 2012/13 to 125,896 in 2015/16.

​
The ministry of health says more than 470,000 B.C. residents have been screened (with stool tests) through the Colon Check program. High-risk polyps have been detected and removed in 9,200 patients, while more than 1,200 people seen through the screening program have received a diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Colonoscopies are said to reduce deaths from colorectal cancer by 60 to 70 per cent. The procedure comes with a slight risk (one in 1,000) of bleeding or perforation. A one-year anniversary report on the screening program showed that only one per cent of patients who got a colonoscopy after an abnormal stool test were found to have cancer. But two thirds had polyps ranging from low to high risk.

According to statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men and third most common in women. In B.C. this year, 3,200 people will get a new diagnosis and 1,280 will die from this form of cancer.

May said he could not provide recent information, but as of September 2016, about 35,000 patients were waiting for a colonoscopy. “It’s important to note that half of all colon screening program patients with a positive FIT result are getting their colonoscopy done within 50 days (as of Sept. 30, 2016). This is an improvement of two weeks when compared to the median wait time a year ago. This is excellent progress, but we know there is more work to do and health authorities are working on systems changes to reduce the wait times for colonoscopies.”

Dr. Martin Fishman, a gastrointestinal (GI) specialist and spokesman for the B.C. Society of Gastroenterology, said he suspects the reason the ministry won’t provide more recent information is because some health authorities cut back endoscopy suite hours where colonoscopies are conducted by as much as 20 per cent last October. That’s had the effect of worsening wait times.

“At the Richmond hospital where I do colonoscopies, we are running two suites but we have to stop work by 3 p.m. instead of 4 p.m., and on Fridays, we stop at noon in one of the rooms. What this means is that we actually have eight hours less for colonoscopies each week,” Fishman said, acknowledging that the problem sound even worse in Kelowna.

Heather Cook, an Interior Health manager with responsibility for the screening program, said she knows the 27-week wait time for a colonoscopy at Kelowna General Hospital is troubling.

“We recognize this is not ideal, but it’s a reflection of the sheer volume of people participating in this program,” she said, adding that the health authority is trying to find solutions. In the meantime, hospitals that don’t have such long wait times are being used and “patients who are prepared to travel outside their community to have their procedure done sooner are accommodated at alternate sites.”

Fishman said without the capacity in hospitals to accommodate patients being referred for colonoscopies, wait lists will only grow, along with a projected increase in colorectal and many other types of cancer. And many specialists have had to stop accepting new patients when their wait times exceed professional standards.

“On the advice of the Canadian Medical Protective Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., some GI practitioners have restricted their practices until endoscopy resources are increased,” he said, adding it’s not a matter of a doctor shortage; there are actually recently trained GI specialists looking for work.

The screening program has been somewhat controversial since it was first announced by then health minister Margaret MacDiarmid in 2012. She said at the time that the government was rolling out the new program even though it had no idea how much the projected costs would be. Even this week, the cancer agency still could not provide a price tag for the screening program.

Fishman said doctors bill the Medical Services Plan for their colonoscopy services and those fees range from about $300 to $500, including the colonoscopy and consultations before and after with patients.

Don't you think that it would be better if every able bodied American paid something towards their health care instead of the uninsured being unable to pay a and that bill being passed down to you?

BC is not Canada, Bart.

Wait times vary by location and by severity.

My father waited 3 days for his because he wanted a time that suited his schedule, and he was facing nothing immediate or critical.

My mother-in-law waited less than an hour, but hers was deemed critical by her doctor.

We also have an alternative to colonoscopy, where you just become a conservative and then shove your head up your ass. But USA is the leader in providing that treatment