Public Medicare brought to you by Accenture? This week, the BC Liberals launched another privatization scheme — the proposal to contract out the administration of MSP and Pharmacare to the private sector.

Health Services Minister Colin Hansen announced the plan and the bid documents have been posted on the BC Bid website. The Minister argued that the privatization was necessary in response to“unacceptable delays”in managing the present system.

He also attempted to minimize the importance of the privatization by referring to it as a “new service delivery model” and characterized the change as “administrative and technical in nature.” The contract is estimated to be worth in the range of $20 to $30 million per year.

There is no question that there are presently unacceptable delays at MSP and Pharmacare, as anyone who has tried to register can attest.

Last September, a Ministry of Health spokesperson acknowledged there was backlog of 230,000 requests in the MSP system. However, this crisis is almost entirely the fault of the current government.

In order to meet its layoff targets, the Province reduced the number of employees in the MSP branch from 185 to 103 staff people. A 44% reduction in staff dealing with an increase in the number of insured created a crisis in the system. This dramatic cut in staff, if restored, would eliminate the need to privatize the service.

On top of this, the government implemented its chaotic “Fair Pharmacare” scheme. It is an elaborate plan that had two policy consequences: fewer benefits for seniors and the sick and more bureaucratic process.

If this purports to be an example the BC Liberals “private sector” approach to government, the BC Business Council might consider suing the premier for defamation.

Hansen now wants to hand control over to a private sector partner who will effectively run Medicare. Why is this bad news for taxpayers?

Firstly, the Minister suggests that his plan only affects the “administrative” side of health and prescription drug coverage. MSP and Pharmacare are public insurance plans — they are all administrative.

The first principle of the Canada Health Act reads: “the administration of the health care insurance plan of a province or territory must be carried out on a non-profit basis by a public authority.” The Ministers action violates the Canada Health Act, and it undermines public health care.

Secondly, there are no guarantees that they will save money or improve service. The Government is simply not providing enough resources in his budget for MSP and Pharmacare administration. The answer to understaffing is hiring staff.

On top of existing costs, a private sector partner will impose a requirement for a reasonable profit, increasing costs to the system. This explains why health administration costs in the United States are double that of Canada.

Thirdly, regardless of the Ministers promise with respect to privacy, this scheme involves the transfer of personal health and financial and information to a private operator.

Finally, the decision by the government to privatize the administrative control of our health care system poses serious risks for the Province. Under the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the ill-advised move could be far more difficult to reverse.

The BC Bid tender contains no provisions to ensure that administrative control of MSP is maintained in BC or Canada. Bidders could include BC-based Pacific Blue Cross or American interests such as Accenture, a Bermuda-based company and BC Liberal contributor, or US health care providers.

Once foreign companies get established in our health care system, NAFTA rules could be used to thwart subsequent efforts to dislodge them — companies could claim compensation for the “expropriation” of their business.

Defenders of NAFTA claim that “social services” such as Medicare are protected from challenge by “reservations” and exemptions in the agreement. This is only party true.

NAFTAs “expropriation-compensation” rules (Article 1110 of the agreement) apply fully to the health-care system and the definition of “expropriation” has been interpreted broadly by NAFTA panels to include regulation that might affect the value of a contract.

As a result, disputes between the government and the winning bidder over accountability of the system could be decided under Article 1110 or Article 1105 of the trade deal — provisions that are backed up by NAFTAs tough investor-to-state dispute settlement process.

Most analysts of the impact of NAFTA upon health care service agree that the current NAFTA threat to Canadas Medicare system is not extreme. However, by privatizing the insurance system, the Provincial Government is unnecessarily exposing our public health to NAFTA challenges — a worrisome and potentially expensive prospect for BC taxpayers.

The BC Liberal government has come up with a complicated plan to solve a problem of its own creation. The governments solution will make matters worse and threaten public Medicare as well.

The Minister of Health Services would be forced to eat a little crow, if he abandoned this ill-conceived scheme. But as the Premier discovered on the Coquihalla recently, when you are doing the right thing, crow can be a tasty dish.