The ruling specified that the current protections covering BC’s Medicare Protection Act will remain in place and that the challenge by Dr. Brian Day (Vancouver Orthopaedic Surgeon) and the Cambie Surgeries Corp., was overruled. Dr. Day had brought the matter to the courts attention stating that the long wait times for surgeries affected a person’s right to “security of person”.
While the judge agreed that certain situations in BC saw patients facing long wait times affecting their health violates their right to security of the person; he stipulated that that the right of patients to access private care was in violation of a provincial law banning extra billing and private insurance.
While a two tier system would alleviate some of the issues in the system, both BC and the federal government have argued that “such a system would erode Canada’s universal health-care system and negatively impact patients with complex chronic conditions and the elderly.”
