Statement: For-profit health care delivery is still a zombie idea

In response to this morning’s health care policy announcement by the BC Conservative Party, the following statement is being issued by Kane Tse, President of the Health Sciences Association of BC.

HSA is the union representing more than 22,000 specialized professionals working in BC’s health care and community social services system. 

Statement from Kane Tse, President

The Health Sciences Association (HSA), as the union representing over 22,000 specialized health professionals delivering critical care to British Columbians, is concerned about today’s announcement from the BC Conservative Party.

Their plan proposes to reduce wait times for health care by increasing private delivery of services. They appear to be ignoring the lessons learned by their colleagues in Alberta, where privatization made wait times much, much worse.

In 2022, the Alberta government contracted medical laboratory testing services to a private company, a move initially expected to save between 16 and 100 million dollars. When implemented in 2023, the move resulted in wait times skyrocketing – from a few days to as many as five weeks for simple lab tests. After only a few months, the Alberta government was forced to scrap the privatization and bring the services back to public delivery. Instead of saving money, the taxpayer was left absorbing nearly $100 million in cancellation costs and liabilities.

How many health care professionals could have been recruited and trained, and how many more tests could have be completed with $100 million dollars, had that money stayed in the public health care system instead of lining the pockets of private health care executives?

As we have seen time and again, private health care delivery costs more money, results in longer wait times, drains capacity from the public system, provides inferior service for the public, and reduces pay and benefits for the specialized health care professionals who are already worn out and ready to quit.

In short: the idea that we can improve health care by delivering more services through private for-profit companies is a zombie idea. No matter how many times it’s proven wrong, it comes right back to life.

We urge all parties to learn from learn from these failed privatization experiences, and to not repeat the same mistakes.