Ucluelet’s Michelle Coulter is fed up with BC’s MSP premium rates and it turns out a lot of British Columbians are feeling the same way.
BC’s Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums vary based on family size with singles paying roughly $75 a month and families of three or more paying about $150 a month, according to the provincial government’s website.
People earning under $30,000 annually pay smaller rates but anyone making $30,000 or more pays the same fee regardless of whether their salary is $30,000 or $300,000.
BC is the only province where rates remain the same for anyone above the $30,000 threshold.
Coulter, who owns Ucluelet’s Playground of the Senses, launched an online petition at change.org on Dec.17 calling for BC’s flat-rate MSP premiums to be eliminated
“I had just had enough,” Coulter told the Westerly News.
“I have to be the voice of everybody that feels they don’t have a voice in this province and we have to look after the next generation of taxpayers.”
She hopes her petition starts a province-wide conversation about MSP premiums.
“I just don’t think British Columbians knew the extent of how they’re being robbed in order to balance a budget,” she said.
“We all pay our taxes and we all want to be hard working citizens but when you start to look at what other provinces are doing you realize that we’re just getting screwed.”
Her petition had garnered 62,920 signatures at press time.
“It’s kind of nerve-wracking,” she said.
“We all think that we’re just one of many but it starts with one and then you have someone stand beside you and someone else stands beside them and you realize that we can make a difference and we can hold the government accountable for their bad behaviour.”