Being the only province that charges a separate tax for health care insurance, BC has to do the right thing and scrap that nonsense.
Premier Christy Clark previously said the government is looking at changing the Medical Services Plan and the premiums that residents pay, but families are still being burdened by this antiquated tax.
In other provinces, medical premiums are handled through general income tax, and that’s the way it should be in BC.
There is an inequity when a family that makes $150,000 a year pays the same rate ($150 a month) that a family does on a $35,000 annual income. These premiums are a hardship for many families, and it’s a hard pill to swallow when you don’t use the health care system.
You can choose not to pay, but you’ll have government personnel contacting you to pay up. And when you do need to see a doctor, you’ll have to come up with the cash first.
They’ve got you over a barrel either way.
And let’s not fool ourselves; if the government does abolish the premiums, it will get its money back another way by jacking up income taxes. Back over the barrel we go.
Lyonel Doherty, editor, Oliver Chronicle
