Re: Heather Yeats' letter, Why shouldn't I be allowed to buy myself a new hip?
Bang on, Heather! Yes, we should allow the rich to pay for their new hip, if the wish the prompt surgery. The arguments of those opposed to this are hollow.
The operating rooms in B.C. are underutilized based on availability of dollars from the health-care system. The surgeons are underutilized because the operating rooms are underutilized.
Anyone who wishes to pay for their own surgery in an available operating room is not jumping the line. In fact, they would be doing the rest of us a favour as this would shorten the surgery waiting list. Most surgeons are only part-time, wanting a full-time schedule.
As long as this does not impact the waiting list in a negative way, all the power to the rich.
A change in policy to allow the rich to pay out of their own pocket would also result in more Canadian doctors currently practising in other countries repatriating themselves back home. Many of them have left our country because of the restrictive health-care policies across Canada.
Let the rich spend their money as they see fit. It is, after all, their money.
I am a man of modest means and therefore am not in position to pay for my surgery out of my own pocket. Should I ever require surgery, I hope the rich have been allowed the opportunity to shorten the line.
Ted Bens,
West Kelowna