by Lucy Hook
One man’s life-long fight against a ban on a specific type of private healthcare insurance was brought to the Supreme Court yesterday after years of waiting.
The case, which has been described as one of the most significant constitutional cases
“perhaps ever”, is being brought by private-clinic owner and long-time proponent of private healthcare, Dr Brian Day of Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver.
Day will challenge British Columbia’s Health Ministry over the provincial ban, in a trial that is expected to last four months, according to the
Globe and Mail, after waiting six years to bring the case to court.
Along with four patients supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, Day argues that a ban on the purchase of private insurance for medically necessary services that are already covered by the public system violates patients’ constitutional rights by forcing them to endure extensive wait times that often exacerbate their health problems,
Canadian Press reports.
However, critics of Day’s fight are apprehensive, arguing that a win for the physician would threaten the entire healthcare system and introduce queue-jumping for those that can afford it.
Colleen Fuller, a chronic Type 1 Diabetes sufferer and member of the Independent Patient Voices Network, told Vancouver’s
Metro News that under Day’s system, patients like herself would end up uninsurable.
“These groups of people, including myself, would be uninsurable in a private health insurance market… The best system that we can have is one where we all pool our money so that we don’t go bankrupt,” she said.
Fuller said that while Day claims to be fighting for the rights of patients, he is actually fighting for the right of doctors to charge.
She said there would be a gradual process of erosion to Medicare services should Day win, as “the more services that are provided in the private sector, the less likely Medicare is to cover them.”
“If Brian Day wins this lawsuit, I don't know what I or people like me will do,” Fuller said.
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