British Columbia’s health-care system has a chance for further improvement

In June 2023, I wrote against a program in which B.C. cancer patients were transferred to private clinics in Washington state for treatment. 

Not that patients were somehow undeserving of care, but the mere implementation of the policy was — as I stated at the time — a concession of Canada’s publicly funded health care to the U.S.’ for-profit scheme. 

Despite the various flaws and issues that Canadian health care has been experiencing in recent years, sending cancer patients down south was equivalent to an admission of defeat of sorts. The program was not the solution that we needed in order for our society to continue to properly function. 

However, there is a sign that things are beginning to take a turn for the better.

A recent announcement from B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said the transference program, which was intended to be a temporary measure, will be coming to an end for reasons unrelated to the ongoing trade war.

Osborne attributed declining participation in the program and shorter wait times for care in B.C. as the reason for the program’s closure, CBC News reported. She credited the hiring of oncologists, radiation therapists, and improvements to existing hospital facilities as reasons for the decrease in wait times and patient participation. 

While there are reasonable concerns about the sustainability of this development, we must also consider that any and all improvements to health care must come internally — from a long-term point of view. One cannot outsource health care and expect to keep a consistently stable social safety net at the same time. 

Public health care must be public, and the public that pays into and takes from it must be its primary benefactors. You know a situation is a massive crisis once a crucial program such as this, which is the difference between life and death for hundreds to thousands of people on a daily basis, begins to rely on another country’s private sector.

By no longer sending patients to Bellingham clinics for radiation treatment, B.C. is emphatically declaring that even if it will be a painful and difficult process, the time has come to take care of its own problems. However, whether or not this will be true depends on if the government follows through and takes the pain. 

Given the government’s rollback on drug decriminalization and the consumer carbon tax in the past year, it is evident that the BC NDP is not chomping at the bit to push the matter farther anytime soon. What’s more likely is that the government will implement a few extra policies to loosely secure this dip in medical wait times and then proceed to call it a day. 

B.C. is experiencing a lucky break that could, and should, be capitalized on as soon as possible to create a more viable and better functioning public health-care system. That requires bold, proactive moves, which, with the exception of those pertaining to trade, are not popular with the median voter right now. 

It’s for the best of all British Columbians that the patient transfer program is set to be shut down as it opens the door for much needed and necessary improvements to our existing system based on a fortuitous turn in circumstances.

However, the odds that the government will let this chance at something better be allowed to slip away is all too real and all too likely.