Solution: Protect funding for public health care
Answer
For-profit providers are costing the province millions of dollars a year. BC is being penalized every year for failing to fully enforce the Medicare Protection Act, which protects patients from being billed for services that should be free. Private for-profit providers have illegally billed BC residents over $100 million since 2016, and the federal government claws back every dollar that is reported. This results in millions of dollars of federal funds being held back that could have gone to improved services.
- What do you and your party propose to do to fully enforce the Medicare Protection Act, including sections that protect patients against illegal extra billing in diagnostic and imaging services?
- How will you phase out public contracts to for-profit and corporate providers that are draining public funding away from public health services?