“The problems are in danger of overwhelming our health service”

The issue of preventative measures in health care, and rising costs to the BC medical system, has generated more comment.  I am not at liberty to disclose the name of the person who has provided the following, however they are well able to make the Guest Comments which follow:

Chronic health problems are indeed a very significant health care problem.  I am not surprised at the comments of Ms. Kaminski.

The 2 problems are firstly dealing with the present situation and at the same time the issue of prevention. At present we have illnesses such as Aides, Tuberculosis and Diabetes all needing life long or extensive drug therapy.   All Transplant patients go on anti-rejection drugs indefinitely.

BC Health Care ... follow-up to Friday’s Blog

Since my blog comment on Friday, I have received additional information from a BC medical care professional, which I invite you to read.

Health care costs for the average Canadian is just under $4,000 / year -- and when we reach the age of 65, as our 'baby boomers' are doing right now, these cost rise steeply.  If they make 90, the average is $ 20,000 a year.  This is for chronic disease; diabetes, respiratory etc, then cancer and heart disease come in.  As well the nursing home and chronic care costs are huge. 

As for preventative medicine, well this is the 'Other half', which is an area we really have not done very well in.  One has only to look about and see all the obesity and smoking, never mind the burgers and donuts etc.

My own view is that these foods are a sort of addiction, and treating them is like treating an addiction -- I suspect that starting in BC schools with some rather dramatic teaching, or something like that, is the long term approach.

It certainly seems like a serious review of how we can improve our approach, and application of, "preventative medicine" is well worth it; not only for the health care budget, BUT for our own well-being.

Click the link to see Friday’s full story, Will these health care suggestions be popular?

Will these health care suggestions be popular??

Barbara Kaminsky is the Chairperson of the BC Healthy Living Alliance ... as well as being the CEO of the BC and Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society. I am going to start from the premise that she is well qualified to be in both of these positions, and therefore comments that she makes should be seriously considered.

That's why I found an article she had in the Vancouver Sun on Monday January 17^th of interest – the story was entitled, “Leadership is the key to decrease prevention.”

In this story she started of with a comment that pretty much all of us would agree on, that is that British Columbian's have health care pretty much at the top of our list of things important to us – in terms if services delivered by the government.

Were you aware that one third of BC's population, that have chronic disease, take up 80% of the costs of Pharmacare, payments to doctors, and hospital costs? -- I certainly wasn't until I read this article. With couples having less children, our population as a whole is ageing, which could have a serious effect on not only health care, but all services delivered by government.