They could balance the budget by billing visitors with "self induced" issues ie if you get in a car accident while drinking, your hospital stay should be billed. This would reduce the length of stay of "some" people freeing up beds to people who deserve the treatment.

Sorry to disappoint you but even criminals have the right to medical treatment in Canada. What you suggest is that if they can not pay the fee they should just lay there and die? A person is innocent until found and proven guilty so how do you refuse treatment right after the accident? I can not see your plan working and find it somewhat inhumane.

Well you maybe should go observe the hospital....you may see things you can't imagine. I don't think patients that threaten people ie staff and guests, should have the right to care. If they are so tweaked out on drugs/alcohol they should be stabalized and removed. They should not get the right to lay in a bed, get free medicine and take a spot in the hospital to not allow a Mrs. Stewart from her much needed operation. They choose to do these things to themselves, let them live the life they choose. Maybe that is an inhumane statement but I am also sympathetic to people that contribute to society ie pay taxes and don't live off the government.

And i suppose we will hire or elect a few folks to determine just what constitutes "self induced"? I am sorry but that is nonsense, especially since virtually all diseaeses have at least some lifestyle component.
The real question to my mind isnt whether they are balancing the budget. What difference does that make if they are not doing the job satisfactorily. After all, the best thing they could do to save money is shut down the hospital altogether.

There is a grain of sense running through the comments made by numbers. Of course we do not want to deny urgent care to anyone, but there are a lot of us who are tired of seeing those who abuse the system, be it medical, e.i. or welfare, getting equal or more timely care than those who work and pay taxes, thus supporting those who do not. If the government had any sense, they would treat the working class tax payers as v.i.p. because we, and small business, are the backbone of the taxation system. Keep us in good shape so we can keep working and paying taxes.
Anyway, how is the NHA solving their budget woes?
One way I know of is by laying off all the new nurses they just hired, nice move eh?
metalman.

Yep that is what they did. So what does that show? There is now a shortage of nurses on the floor and the ones that kept their jobs are now expected to treat more patients. This reduces the care provided and in turn makes the system look worse.

Numbers wrote: "They could balance the budget by billing visitors with "self induced" issues"

I was in the ER one night and there were 2 cases of kids that injured themselves playing hockey. They were in there for scans since they had concussions.

These were self induced, in my opinion. They were participating in a contact sport known to have frequent incidents like that.

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MSP takes care of those payments. I would think that the hospital has an expense as a result of treating a patient. They get the payment for that treatment from either MSP, the patient, or some type of insurance such as ICBC, WCB, etc.

They get paid the same or similar either way. If the body that covers the incident does not get billed by the hospital because the hospital is able to bill the patient directly, the saving is had by the insurer.

So, no saving to be had by the hospital.