Euthanasia: The price on a life in Canada.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Globe and Mail reported that at least one doctor in British Columbia (BC) stopped lethally injecting people because the Provincial Ministry of Health is not paying enough money to kill (MAID).

The article by Kelly Grant, in the Globe and Mail, appears to pressure the BC government to pay more for euthanasia. Grant writes:

Dr. Pewarchuk, an internal medicine specialist in Victoria who has presided over 20 assisted deaths, took his name off the list of willing physicians last month after the body that sets doctors’ pay in British Columbia approved new fees that he and some of his fellow providers say are so low they could chase away even the most committed physician supporters of assisted dying.

The article outlines the BC government fee schedule that is paid to doctors for euthanasia:

Under the new fee schedule, B.C. physicians will now be paid $40 for every 15 minutes, up to a maximum of 90 minutes, to conduct the first of two eligibility assessments required by law. Each of the assessments has to be provided by a different clinician. That works out to $240, a significant increase from the $100.25 interim assessment fee that has been in place in B.C. since shortly after assisted death became legal. 

For second assessments, the time is capped at 75 minutes. 

In the case of providing an assisted death, the province has set a flat fee of $200, plus a home-visit fee of $113.15.

The price on a life in British Columbia is up to $240 + $313.15 or $553.15.

The article then compares the BC payment for killing to several other Provinces:

By comparison, if a doctor spent three hours start to finish on an assisted death – excluding the formal eligibility assessment – he or she could bill $621.60 in Alberta, $600 in New Brunswick, $499.80 in Quebec, $480 in Manitoba and $465.60 in Saskatchewan. If doctors in those same five provinces billed for two hours, they could still earn more than B.C.’s $313.15 in every province but Saskatchewan, though not by much.

In January the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association published an article indicating that the Canadian healthcare system could save  up to138 Million dollars now that euthanasia is legal.