[ your name ] [ the date ]
[ your address and email ]
[ name of MLA ]
[ MLA address and email address ]
CC: Hon Josie Osborne, Minister of Health
Premier David Eby
Dear [ Mr./Mrs./Ms./Mx your MLAs full name ], MLA
Re: Imminent Collapse of Vital Care Model for Chronically Ill British Columbians
I am writing as a member of LifeLineBC, a grassroots coalition of patients, caregivers, and advocates for people living with complex chronic diseases, including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Long COVID, and Fibromyalgia.
These diseases are debilitating, post-viral conditions that often leave patients unable to tolerate physical, cognitive, or emotional exertion. They disproportionately affect women, BIPOC communities, and low-income individuals. Due to the ongoing impacts of repeat COVID-19 infections, these patient numbers are growing steadily- while the healthcare system remains dangerously unprepared to meet the need.
Effective September 1, 2025, MSP will cap billing for virtual group medical visits at 20 patients. This change threatens the very existence of BC’s virtual clinic model tailored to complex chronic diseases: the BC Centre for Long COVID, ME/CFS, and Fibromyalgia (BC-CLMF). This clinic currently supports over 5,000 patients across BC, many of whom are housebound or live in rural regions with no access to local specialists.
This change will:
Increase ER visits, GP strain, and wait times by eliminating the clinic’s high-efficiency virtual model
Strip care from rural and disabled patients who physically cannot attend in-person services
Lower care quality by eliminating access to specialist-led education and support groups
Punish a successful model that has reduced healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes
[Insert your testimonial here — how long you’ve been sick, what support the clinic provided, what losing it would mean or simply delete this and the title.]
While BC also funds the Post-COVID-19 Interdisciplinary Clinical Care Network, it is not a meaningful alternative since it is only available for those with a post covid diagnosis. Patients with ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, or other complex chronic diseases are not eligible to apply. Furthermore, this network only offers high level patient care for the duration of 12 months after which, regardless of improvement, or lack thereof, they are automatically discharged. They are often referred to the BC-CLMF for continuation of care.
The Complex Chronic Diseases Program (CCDP) is not a viable alternative either. It has a years-long waitlist, requires in person treatment, and limits care to 12 months regardless of patient improvement. Upon discharge, many patients are referred to the BC-CLMF for continuation of care.
Both of these programs also simply do not have the CAPACITY to tend to this large patient population that is growing, nor can they absorb the BC-CLMF patients if the clinic collapses. This is not a situation where patients can simply “go elsewhere.” ERs, family doctors, and most specialists do not have the training or tools to safely treat these conditions. Many patients are homebound. Without the virtual, specialist-led group care the BC-CLMF offers, we simply do not have access to health care.
This policy contradicts the government’s stated commitments to affordability, health innovation, and equity. It will increase system costs, worsen patient outcomes, and forces thousands back into crisis care. It is a quiet dismantling of one of the few models that actually works.
As an MLA, your leadership matters. You can:
Demand accountability for why an efficient, evidence-based model is being discarded
Urge Minister Osborne to intervene and identify an alternative funding path to sustain the BC-CLMF
Raise this in the Legislature and media on behalf of your constituents and the hundreds of thousands affected
I would welcome the opportunity to speak further, provide clinic data, or connect you directly with the physicians involved. This issue is urgent, and I will follow up in one week if I don’t hear back.
Thank you for standing up for your constituents and for sound healthcare policy in BC.
Kind regards,
[ type name ]
Digitally signed
CC Hon Josie Osborne, Minister of Health
Premier David Eby
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