NDP says $21b for health care to make up for ‘years of cuts’
While health expenditures have risen every year for decades, Finance Minister Carole James said Tuesday the NDP government is determined to make up for “years of cuts” and “underfunding” by the previous Liberal government.
The B.C. Ministry of Health will spend about $21 billion in the 2019/20 fiscal year. The 2018/2019 budget was $19.8 billion.
It’s expected that federal transfer payments averaging about $5.5 billion in each of the next three years will help fund the spending which includes billions on new or upgraded hospitals over the next few years, including St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and Royal Columbian in New Westminster. The government expects to spend $4.4 billion over three years on major hospital construction and upgrades, equipment and health information systems.
James said the government has allocated $74 million over three years for a better-coordinated child and youth mental health system in which families can “ask once to get help fast.” The new approach will help “ease the worries of countless parents” who don’t know where to turn, she said.
It is described in budget documents as a program to fund prevention and early intervention for children and young adults trying to cope with mental health and addictions problems. Specialized teams of educators, counsellors, mental health experts, substance-use experts and others will provide services in one-stop shop facilities, online programs and others.
OVERDOSE CRISIS
James said the government would spend another $30 million on the fentanyl overdose crisis, bringing the total spent since 2017 to $608 million. Across the province, there is a need for more paramedics in rural and remote areas as they have been on the front line of the crisis.
Budget documents say funding is going towards 21 overdose-prevention sites and nine supervised-consumption sites. Between July 2017 and June 2018, people used drugs 475,000 times at these sites. In that period, 3,000 individuals overdosed at the sites, but all were revived by staff. Another 1,700 drug users were successfully resuscitated around the province over the past year for a total of 4,700 overdose deaths averted.
Still, about 1,500 individuals died from overdoses across the province in 2018.
PRIMARY-CARE STRATEGY
James said the government is “hiring” 200 new family doctors, 200 nurse practitioners, and 50 pharmacists, to provide “faster, better” care in “every corner of the province” at urgent-care and primary-health clinics. Five urgentcare clinics have opened so far, including one in downtown Vancouver, and another five will open at undisclosed locations by the summer.
PHARMACARE
Pharmacare deductibles for 240,000 people with incomes under $45,000 have been eliminated, at a cost of $105 million over three years. The government is also spending $42 million to expand coverage for certain drugs so “people can access the medications they need,” including those for diabetes, asthma, and hypertension.
The government is fulfilling its promise to eliminate Medical Services Plan premiums formerly charged to individuals and now paid by employers through a health tax. James said the MSP premium cut that began last year will be eliminated by the end of this year. At $2.7 billion, it is “one of the biggest middle-class tax cuts in B.C. history.”
By doing away with premiums, families will save as much as $1,800 a year. But employers are expected to make up the lost revenue through the payroll tax.