Spending on home and community care by the province amounts to $2.8 billion a year and is up nearly 80 per cent since 2001.
Is that enough? A new report, Monitoring Seniors Services, from Isobel Mackenzie, the seniors advocate, found that home care is not keeping up with senior population growth in B.C. and waiting lists for subsidized seniors housing continues to grow.
The government's current strategy for caring for seniors is to shift more resources to home and community care. According to Mackenzie, three out of five health authorities are providing fewer hours of home care while the population is growing in four out of five areas. In other words more seniors are receiving home care but seniors are getting less care per person province wide.
And when it comes to income supports for seniors, meeting the demand for service for the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER) program and the HandyDART service, Mackenzie found the demand is also outstripping the supply.
On a more positive note the report found that 96 per cent of seniors have their own doctor and four out of five seniors have no diagnosis of dementia.
Mackenzie has done what she was supposed to do here: highlight areas where seniors' needs are being met and draw attention to areas where improvements are most needed. Given that, I am puzzled by the position the advocate has taken on the issue of the Medical Services Plan premiums. MSP premiums have to be paid by anyone living in B.C. for six months or more.
Now I don't have a lot of time for people who say health care should be free but we do need to make sure the way we pay for health care is fair and equitable. MSP premiums are prorated for those who make up to $30,000. If you are a single person and earn more than $30,000 you will pay a monthly fee of $72. You can make twice that or 10 times that amount and you will pay the same premium. Mackenzie thinks the minimum threshold for exemption for payment for MSP premiums should be raised and she wants to make sure those who qualify for MSP premium assistance are aware of it.
There is some merit in that I suppose. While up to half of seniors 65 and older could be eligible for an MSP subsidy, only about 30 per cent make use of it. But I think she misses the point. What the province calls a health premium is really a regressive tax that unfairly targets low-income individuals.
Every province in Canada, except B.C., has rolled their health care premiums into their income tax system with payments based on the ability to pay.
It seems to me the seniors advocate should be advocating for that. She's not.
Part of an advocate's job, in my opinion, is to tell the government when their policy is wrong.
If the seniors advocate won't, or more likely can't do that, then we need to find someone who will.
Postscript: If your income is less than $30,000 a year you may be eligible to receive MSP premium assistance.
It's certainly worth a telephone call (604-683-7151) to Health Insurance BC to find out.
Tom Carney is the former executive director of the Lionsview Seniors' Planning Society. Ideas for future columns are welcome. [email protected]
