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Circumcisions cut back
New statistics from the Canadian Institute for Health Information show a steady and dramatic long-term decline in the number of infant circumcisions performed in Canadian hospitals. A total of 15,977 male infants were circumcised in Canadian hospitals in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, compared with 38,062 in the year ended March 31, 1996. The figures mean that in fiscal 2005, the latest year for which data are available, the newborn circumcision rate in Canadian hospitals was about 9 percent, down from 20 percent nine years earlier. The data include circumcision procedures performed in hospitals on boys up to one year of age, either as part of the birth admission or on a subsequent visit. The data do not include the significant number of circumcisions performed in doctors’ offices and private clinics. The Canadian Institute for Health Information is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded primarily by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Public funding chopped Ottawa sources report that last year Canada phased out the final remnants of government funding for routine infant circumcision. The Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP), a supplemental health insurance plan sponsored by the Canadian government for the benefit of federal public sector employees, stopped reimbursing routine circumcision of newborns effective September, 2005. (1) PSHCP management said they ended payments for infant circumcision because “no provincial /territorial health insurance plan covers the procedure.” With over half a million members, the PSHCP is the largest employment-based health insurance plan in Canada. Manitoba, the last province to fund routine circumcision of infant boys, ceased coverage for the procedure unless medically required. (2)
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