Re: MSP premiums still too high, Editorial, Feb. 23.
Recently I received a promotional brochure from the B.C. Liberals advising that effective Jan. 1, 2018 my MSP premiums would be $900 lower for middle class taxpayers. They indicated that both the Green Party and NDP have suggested a total elimination of the premium, but this would be offset by an increase in income tax. Every other province has eliminated premiums and fund their medical services by income taxes, so why shouldn’t we? Is the B.C. government so smart that they know something that all other provinces don’t?
Eliminating MSP and funding our medical through income tax would be the most efficient way of handling medical services – the government would no longer need to determine who must pay premiums, must pay 50 per cent or need not pay at all. Also, the government would not have to invoice, process remittances and trace delinquent payments for MSP. Furthermore, for companies where MSP is collected through payroll deduction or paid as a benefit, the process of determining annual income would be eliminated.
R.K. TsujiNanaimo
