Vancouver Clinic crackdown

The Joy of Socialism

VICTORIA - A showdown over the future of medicare is expected to unfold in Vancouver today as the B.C. government threatens to shut down a private clinic that may start charging patients for services that should be free under the health care system. ''We need to ensure universal access to health care is maintained in this province,'' B.C. Health Minister George Abbott said Thursday. In what Abbott called ''an extraordinary move,'' the B.C. government pushed through a cabinet order Thursday that will empower government auditors to enter the premises of the Urgent Care Centre that has promised to open its doors today in Vancouver. While the private clinic's operators have yet to charge anyone for emergency services, they have made it clear they plan to challenge the status quo of Canada's medicare system. [B.C. gov't gets tough with private clinic] What ''private'' clinic? Two seconds after the recent election Hillary Clinton announced "Health Care is back!"  Even though she nominally failed to grab control of America's health care in 1993, her plan has been largely implement piecemeal (much of it thanks to Republicans), and we're not so very far behind Canada today.   George Orwell rather succinctly described what's happening in Vancouver in Animal Farm,  where  "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."  Simply put, when everything is free, demand will outstrip resources.  Americans would never stand [they think] for what the average Canadian (or Brit, or Cuban) patient goes through.  Diagnosed with cancer?  The queue starts here, your surgery is scheduled for ... will next July be too soon?  Sorry, but the consequences of socialism are as rigidly applied as any law of physics. The B.C.  government can stop the overt charge for services - at the point of a gun -  but under-the-pillow "tips" to doctors, nurses, and the guy who gives you the enema will not be stopped.