. . . when you can cut off the services?

Further to my weekend column on how a government health system inevitably means restricted access to treatment, a word from British Columbia:

The Fraser Health Authority confirmed Thursday it intends to cut surgeries, seniors’ programs and services for the mentally ill to help deal with a budget shortfall of up to $160 million.
However, it said the emergency department at Mission Memorial Hospital will stay open.

That’s awfully sporting of them, all things considered.

The board said 10 to 15 per cent of elective surgeries will be cut in the latter part of the 2009-10 fiscal year, with slowdowns already scheduled for the Olympic period.

That’s how it works. You can elect to have the surgery but they won’t elect to give it to you. And don’t ask me why hosting the Winter Olympics should necessitate cuts in health care. Unless they’re expecting an epidemic of two-man luge teams with buttocks frozen to the sled or men’s ice-dancing teams felled by attempting a double-axle in a too tight bolero jacket, it would seem to be just one of those things that happens when governments of advanced wealthy nations decide they can run every aspect of life more “efficiently” than the citizenry.