(The following article is from the June 16-30, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Resolution adopted by the 37th BC Convention of the Communist Party of Canada, May 31-June 1, 2008

The B.C. Liberal government's Bill 21, the so-called "Medicare Protection Amendment Act," is a cynical attempt to increase people's fears and misconception of healthcare costs "spiralling out of control". Using sleight-of-hand economics, Premier Campbell and his cronies claim that healthcare now eats up nearly 50% of the provincial budget. They neglect to mention that government revenue has been reduced by handing out tax cuts that have mainly benefited the wealthy, and that their cut, slash and burn approach has reduced other slices of the budget pie such as welfare. For example, social assistance spending was only $1.3 billion in 2004, just a little bit higher than in 1984 under Bill Bennett when they first crossed the $1 billion line, even though the Consolidated Revenue Fund is now more than five times larger than in the early eighties. No wonder healthcare spending suddenly appears huge by comparison.

     Bill 21 uses weasel words such as "individual choice" and "personal responsibility". Nobody "individually chooses" to become ill or get into an accident. We pay taxes because we understand that there is a collective social responsibility to ensure that all residents of this country and province, whatever their financial situation, have a right to basic social services. Health care is one of these. The Canada Health Act enshrines the five principles of Public Administration, Comprehensiveness, Universality, Portability and Accessibility.

     Sustainability, on the other hand, is an invention of a government that wants to open the floodgates to even more privatization in health care. Interestingly, pharmacies are private in BC. The cost of prescription drugs for every British Columbian more than doubled between 1996 and 2003. That puts the lie to government claims that privatization can defray health care costs for the public.

     Campbell and his cronies claim there is no public solution to overcrowded ERs and long waits for some surgeries and diagnostic procedures. Yet public clinics in other parts of Canada have accomplished precisely that. Furthermore, there wouldn't be such overcrowding in our acute care hospitals if Campbell hadn't reneged on his 2001 election promise of 5,000 new long term care beds. Assisted living doesn't cut it for seniors and others in need of skilled care. And every time a new long term care facility opens under great fanfare, another one quietly closes down, its residents moving into the new building with very few net gains on beds.

     This BC Provincial Convention of the Communist Party of Canada calls on the BC Government to repeal Bill 21 immediately. This convention also urges all members and clubs of the Communist Party in BC to work together with other individuals and organizations within your communities to protest and fightback against this regressive legislation.