MSP premiums should be based on what a person earns: B.C. MLA

WATCH: A new idea is being floated that would change the way we pay for Medical Service Plan premiums in the province.  Kylie Stanton explains.

VANCOUVER – Andrew Weaver, the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head and deputy leader of the B.C. Green Party, says Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums should be based on what a person earns.

In B.C., if you earn $30,000 a year, you pay $72 a month toward MSP. If you earn $130,000 a year, you pay $72 a month toward MSP.

“It does not affect one’s ability to pay and secondly, in many organizations, public sector, schools, hospitals, big corporations etc, MSP premiums are often paid by the employer as a taxable benefit,” says Weaver.

“When the government raises this tax, and let’s be clear, MSP premium is a tax, when it raises this tax, the public sector, the schools, hospitals, never get this funding so in essence, it also burdens them.”

He says the best way to deal with this, as other jurisdictions have done, is to recognize that the money must come from somewhere so it should be included in the income tax.

WATCH: MLA Andrew Weaver talks to Global News’ Geoff Hastings on BC1

MSP premiums have to be paid by anyone living in B.C. for six months or longer, and while some people are eligible for premium assistance, once a person earns a net income of $30,000 or more, the full $72 a month must be paid.

“It’s a very regressive, very unfair tax,” says Weaver.

He adds that it brings in revenue that can be brought in from other sources. “It’s unclear to me why the government would want to keep doing this,” he says.

But there is an argument the government could make, according to Weaver.

“They claim that they’re not raising taxes, the mantra of ‘we will not raise taxes’, so what has happened is that we’ve seen income tax reduction, but we’ve seen MSP premiums increase,”explains Weaver.

“That’s kind of a Dennis Moore, Monty Python sketch, you steal from the poor and give to the rich type of taxation. But that’s really what they’ve been doing here.”