Bill 21, which adds the principle of ‘sustainability’ to the healthcare act is the first step towards greater privatization of our healthcare system says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
“It isn’t as though just by slapping the term ‘sustainable’ on our medical system, costs will magically decrease,” said Coons. “I do not believe it’s unreasonable to ask the Minister of Health what the point of this legislation is. It does nothing to improve health care.”
Coons is opposed to the bill because it is vague, and its primary purpose seems to be the advancing the myth that healthcare costs are spiralling out of control.
“Let’s look at sustainability and what isn’t sustainable in this province. This government has put forth the premise that our health care is not sustainable. Perhaps, we need to look at things that are really not sustainable,” said Coons. “We have a government that is basically chained to corporate interests rather than to the people they serve, I find that not sustainable.”
Coons is concerned because members of the government have been using distorted numbers to perpetuate the idea that health spending is unsustainable.
“Considering that at one point the Liberals were making the ridiculous declaration that health care would eat 71 percent of provincial revenues by 2017, I would hazard to guess that members of the government are not of the opinion that current health spending is sustainable,” said Coons. “The truth is that healthcare costs have remained fairly steady over the last decade, and will continue to remain affordable well into the future.”
Most peer-reviewed studies, both in Canada and internationally, show that public health care systems are more sustainable than private systems. In fact, total health spending as a share of GDP in Canada (at 9.8 percent) is significantly lower than in the US (15.3 percent), where private healthcare is the rule.
“At the very best this legislation is useless. At the very worst it’s a foundation for changes that will make healthcare cost more for British Columbians,” said Coons. “We already have a sustainable system; it would be nice if this government turned towards fixing gaps in healthcare instead of pushing buzzwords and myths.”