Dear editor,
Re: Making private healthcare illegal again, July 15.
I read Tom Fletcher’s article with interest. I have lived in England and Australia and both countries have private and public health care and work fine for everybody. Those who can afford it, will pay their already-taxed dollars to expedite their surgeries and vacating a spot in the public health care system for another person. What’s wrong with that?
In B.C., as of Oct. 1, anyone needing private surgery will have to go to the U.S.A. for it. Why are we doing this to our own citizens? Fletcher forgot to mention that the private clinics in B.C., that have been operating for years, are not about to shut down. No. The NDP government wants them to continue operating so WorkSafe patients can have priorities. This government is quite happy to create a two-tier system to suit itself. I hope B.C. citizens will keep this in mind at the next election.
Gulzar Hallman,
Nanaimo
Dear editor,
Re: Making private healthcare illegal again, July 15.
I am really put off by columns by Tom Fletcher, I don’t think there is a single piece of accurate information in this column. Why do you publish it?
Let’s start with the fact that we have a publicly funded, privately delivered health care system. Dr. Danielle Martin, the author of Better Now: Six Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for all Canadians, thoughtfully explains why a two-tier system as suggested by Fletcher would make our health care system less effective, more expensive with poor outcomes. The cost of an ER visit in Vancouver for a visitor was $750 in 2017. Cost of ER visits in the U.S. vary widely – average cost in 2013 was $2,168.
I think it is morally and ethically wrong for you to publish articles so filled with misinformation as Fletcher’s. It seems to me that a small local paper needs to be providing accurate information to readers to help make their lives better, not agitate them with fake news.
D. Ackerson,
Nanaimo