Copeman Clinic: Health Coalition Calls on Health Minister to overturn Medical Services Commission decision
Letter to George Abbott demands the government release the details of the Copeman investigation that concluded the centre is not violating medicare laws even though it requires patients to pay large fees to receive its services
The BC Health Coalition is calling on the provincial government to overturn a Medical Services Commission decision that found Vancouver’s Copeman Healthcare Centre is in compliance with the laws of medicare, even though the facility charges thousands of dollars in annual membership fees.
In a letter to Health Minister George Abbott, the Coalition reminds the government that the public health care system in BC and across Canada is based on the principle that access to medical services is available to everyone based on medical need, not on ability to pay.
The letter warns that the model promoted by the Copeman Healthcare Centre violates prohibitions on user fees for publicly insured services, and reminds the government that the BC Court of Appeal has ruled that the principles of the Canada Health Act are part of, and affect the interpretation of the BC Medicare Protection Act, the law governing Medicare in BC.
"Your obligation now is to uphold existing laws in BC and to ensure our province complies with the Canada Health Act," says Joyce Jones, BC Health Coalition co-chair.
The BCHC is also demanding that the provincial government release the complete details of the Medical Services Commission investigation of the Copeman Healthcare Centre and the full reasons for its conclusions.
"We request that you work to ensure full public disclosure of the Medical Services Commission investigation of the Centre in order that we can properly understand how such a conclusion was reached," says Jones.
"We are faced with many unanswered questions about this investigation. How many on-site visits did the Medical Services Commission carry out during its investigation? Were any of these unannounced? How many members of the public who access the Copeman Healthcare
Centre were contacted by the Medical Services Commission? Was it determined whether or not they paid annual fees? "
"Only when we have answers to such questions will we be able to evaluate a decision that allows a primary care centre to require patients to pay large fees to physicians who provide publicly insured medically necessary services," says Jones.
"It is time for the BC government to build on the successes of many positive public solutions to our health care challenges. Instead of giving the green light to exclusive member-only for-profit medicine which erodes the public system, the government needs to build on the successes of many public innovations such as public community health centres that provide comprehensive, team-based care, and which are proven to result in lower costs to the system and better health outcomes," added Jones.
Visit the BCHC website view the letter: www.bchealthcoalition.ca
For more information contact:
Joyce Jones, co-chair; BC Health Coalition
604-987-0168 or 604-786-7530 (cell)
Supporting positive, public solutions to make Medicare stronger in British Columbia!
BC Helath Coalition
411 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1X4 -
phone: 604.681.7645 - fax: 604.681.7947
email: info@bchealthcoalition.ca - website: www.bchealthcoalition.ca
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