The BC Liberals privatization agenda for health care took another critical step forward in September with the announcement of a Request-for-Proposal (RFP) to build a privately run and operated hospital to replace the existing MSA Hospital in Abbotsford. Fresh from the Coquihalla fiasco, the government is proposing yet another dubious financing scheme.

The Abbotsford Hospital and Cancer Centre was originally announced in the spring of 2001 by the previous NDP government. In both the 2001 (NDP) and 2002 budgets (BC Liberals), it appeared as a publicly built and operated facility in the B.C. Government’s capital plans.

However, soon after coming to office, the BC Liberals decided to pursue the private option for the Abbotsford Hospital. They commissioned a Price Waterhouse Cooper report that claimed a possible one per cent cost advantage in pursuing a private initiative over a 30-year period, based on data provided by the government.

In November 2002, the Premier announced in a speech to the Independent Contractors and Builders Association of BC that the hospital would indeed go “private.” The ICBA has been a strong supporter of such schemes and of the BC Liberals. The Association gave $155,000 to the Campbell Liberals during the 2001 election.

In the 2003 budget therefore, the project disappeared from the government’s capital plan, having been transformed into a “private initiative,” one that will be paid for eventually at a premium by the taxpayer. This step technically takes the debt associated with the project “off-book,” helping the BC Liberals short-term bottom line. Don’t worry, however; taxpayers will more than pay for the facility and its operations at a premium

Just as in the case of the Coquihalla privatization proposal, the Abbotsford Hospital scheme is a financing arrangement that will cost taxpayers dearly in the long run. Private sector borrowing costs more than governments, and with higher administrative costs and profits to be factored in, the net cost to the taxpayers can be substantially higher. In effect, the government is paying at least an additional three to four per cent in borrowing costs on your behalf, in order to get the project off its books in the short run.

The question is the same as in the Coquihalla Highway privatization scheme. Would you re-mortgage your house at a 10-12 per cent interest rate right now? And if not, why are Gary Collins and Gordon Campbell doing it on your behalf?

The BC Liberals are also turning over one of the most important health care centres in the province to private interests, an approach condemned in the Romanow Report and repeatedly opposed in public opinion surveys by BC voters. According to two polls conducted by the Mustel Group, even a majority of BC Liberal supporters are opposed to private-public partnerships of this kind in health care and specifically to the Abbotsford proposal.

Ironically, the capital money dedicated to the Abbotsford Hospital (then $211 million through 2007) has been replaced in the capital plan by a $230 million investment in the expanded Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. The BC Liberals originally tried to make the Convention Centre work as a private-public partnership. The very model that could not fund a tourism and convention venture in Vancouver is now being imposed on patients in the Fraser Valley and taxpayers across BC.

Already, the Abbotsford Hospital is more expensive under the BC Liberals RFP. The initial capital cost for the project has increased in one-year from $211 million to $300 million dollars for the same number of hospital beds — a 40 per cent increase and the contracts have not yet been awarded. The annual service contract paid by taxpayers to run the privatized facility has almost doubled to $39.7 million in a year.

Originally, the governments Request-for-Proposal was to be announced by June. The government delayed its release to September 29. Why the delay? Did the government decide to sweeten the pot to make the project more lucrative for potential bidders?

And who are the four short-listed bidders who will benefit from the scheme? The Hospital Employees Union recently released profiles of the four consortia that should give taxpayers cause for concern. Partners in the various bids have been involved in public-private partnerships from Great Britain to Lesotho, leaving a trail of cost overruns and controversies along the way. And they have combined to give the BC Liberals tens of thousands of dollars in political donations in recent years.

Privatization has three consequences for health care in British Columbia. First, it makes public health interests subsidiary to private profit, and trades away the public’s control of health care for dubious benefits. Second, for-profit health care increases overall costs, as in the United States. In short, health care becomes more expensive, whether we pay for it through taxes, private insurance premiums or user fees. Finally, the privatization of health care risks public health. Compare Canadian health results in life expectancy or infant mortality with the United States and you will see the value of a universal, public Medicare system.

The Abbotsford Hospital privatization project therefore, doesn’t just affect residents of the Fraser Valley. It will affect Medicare for all of us. This is why the public’s voice desperately needs to be heard, before the BC Liberals are allowed to sign away our future in a 33-year contract.