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British
Columbia Moves Backwards on Women’s Equality
Submission of the B.C. CEDAW
Group to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women on the occasion of the Committee’s review of Canada’s 5th
Report | January 23, 2003
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ARTICLE 12
Article 12: Women’s Health
86. Recent changes to the health care system will disproportionately
harm the health and well-being of women. These changes include an increase
in the premiums that must be paid to the Medical Services Plan (MSP) in
order to access provincial health services, a reduction in the kinds of services
that are covered under MSP, restrictions on eligibility for the pharmacare
program, restrictions on eligibility for home care, the closure of many
residential or long term care facilities – the majority of whose residents
are elderly women – the closure of up to 2,000 hospital beds, and the loss
of “good” women’s jobs in the health care sector.
British Columbia Ministry of Finance and Ministry
of Health Services, News Release “MSP Premiums Increased to Fund Wage Costs”
(7 February 2002), online:
Government of British Columbia
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 92]
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services, Service Plan Summary
2002/03 – 2005/05 at 4, online:
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 93]
Caledon Institute of Social Policy, “A New Era in British Columbia:
A Profile of Budget Cuts Across Social Programs” at 1, online:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 82]
87. B.C. is one of two provinces in Canada which requires residents
to pay a premium to access the public health care system. This premium
has recently been substantially increased, placing an extra burden on women
living on low and fixed incomes.
British Columbia Ministry of Finance and Ministry
of Health Services, News Release “MSP Premiums Increased to Fund Wage Costs”
(7 February 2002), online:
Government of British Columbia
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 92]
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services, Service Plan Summary
2002/03 – 2005/05 at 4, online:
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 93]
88. There has been a substantial increase in the costs associated
with prescription drugs. The government has announced that it will be
introducing on January 1, 2003 means-testing to determine eligibility
for seniors for Pharmacare (the provincial drug benefit program), although
recently there was an announcement that means-testing is being re-evaluated.
Should the government implement means-testing, the threatened result is
that low- and middle-income seniors will pay more for their drugs. Studies
have shown that when the cost of drugs is increased, fewer people take
the medications prescribed to them, meaning that low income people, and
particularly elderly women, will go without medically required drugs.
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services,
Pharmacare Newsletter (7 December 2001), online:
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 94]
S. Klein, “Envisioning Progressive Health Care Reform” (Speech to
the Canadian College of Heath Care Executives, B.C. Lower Mainland Chapter)
24 May 2002, online:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 95]
Statistics Canada, “Statistical Report on the Health of Canadians,”
(1999), online:
StatsCan
(date accessed: 20 October 2002). [Tab 96]
89. Some medical services that were covered under the provincial medical
health insurance plan are no longer covered. These include regular eye
exams, physiotherapy, massage, chiropractic care, podiatry, and naturopathy.
Diseases and injuries that women are more prone to are often treated by
these medical treatments and complementary services. Requiring payment reduces
access to them for women, and particularly elderly women.
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services,
website, online:
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
(date accessed: 20 October 2002). [Tab 97]
90. Twenty-five thousand seniors live in residential care facilities
(also referred to as long term care facilities or nursing homes) and three
quarters of these seniors have low incomes. The majority are frail elderly
women. In April 2002, the provincial government announced that it will close
3,000 residential care beds. As these closures have begun, one consequence
has been the separation of spouses who need different levels of care.
Eligibility for long term care has been redefined, and only those assessed
as having “complex needs” will now get into residential care. Six thousand
to eight thousand seniors will no longer be eligible. This appears to be
a key way that the government is tackling long waiting lists for residential
care. Instead of fulfilling its pre-election promise to build new not-for-profit
long-term care beds, the government is now focussed on building “assisted
living spaces,” which do not provide the same level of support as residential
care, and also shift some costs to individual seniors. Assisted living spaces
require individual seniors to pay for their own drugs, medical supplies and
equipment, and recreational activities. Assisted living is housing, not
health care.
Vancouver Women’s Health Collective, Her
Voice, Fall 2002, at 2 – 3. [Tab 98]
91. As seniors are being moved out of residential care facilities
and into assisted living units, the health authorities across the province
have also reduced home care to senior in order to stay within the budgets
imposed on them by the provincial government. The Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority in October 2002 reduced shopping, cleaning and laundry services
to about 5,600 residents in the Lower Mainland. Seven thousand more seniors
are being reassessed.
Vancouver Women’s Health Collective,
Her Voice, Fall 2002, at 3. [Tab 98]
92. Recent cuts and changes to British Columbia’s health care system
increasingly privatize health care provision and actual caregiving work:
more and more of the costs of health care will be paid for by individuals,
families and sometimes employers. Moreover, more and more health-related
caregiving work will be done in families and communities by society’s traditional
care-givers: women. Thus, women’s health will suffer because of
the added stress and the toll of greater caregiving responsibilities.
S. Klein, “Envisioning Progressive Health
Care Reform” (Speech to the Canadian College of Heath Care Executives,
B.C. Lower Mainland Chapter) 24 May 2002, online:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab94]
Friends of Women and Children in B.C., Report Card, May 15, 2002,
Vol. 1 No.2, online:
University of British Columbia Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender
Relations
(date accessed: 7 August 2002). [Tab 24]
93. At the end of April, the government announced over 6,500 job cuts
in the health care sector, most of which were jobs of service workers
such as hospital cooks and cleaners. These workers are members of the
Hospital Employees’ Union, and eighty-seven per cent of its members are
women. The job cuts represent a loss of “good” jobs for women, jobs
that are relatively well-paying and unionized. Women who continue to be
employed to perform the same type of work are now having their jobs transformed
into lower-paying, non-unionized ones.
Caledon Institute of Social Policy,
“A New Era in British Columbia: A Profile of Budget Cuts Across Social
Programs” at 2, online:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 82]
Hospital Employees Union, website, online:
HEU
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 99]
Friends of Women and Children in B.C., Report Card, May 15, 2002,
Vol. 1 No.2, online:
University of British Columbia Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender
Relations
(date accessed: 7 August 2002). [Tab 24]
94. The government abolished 52 community health boards, replacing
them with 5 regional health authorities, and one provincial health authority.
With this change, the mechanisms for community input have disappeared.
The Vancouver/Richmond Health Board, which was one of the 52 community
health boards, had seven community health committees. These committees
represented underserved populations, and provided an opportunity for representatives
of these groups to be involved in health planning. These committees included
a Women’s Committee, and Committees focussed on the needs and concerns
of Aboriginal people, children and youth, people with disabilities, lesbians
and gay men, people with mental health issues, multicultural communities
and seniors. There is no longer any mechanism for community consultation
or for the provision of guidance to the health authorities on women’s health
issues, such as violence against women or women’s mental health.
British Columbia Ministry of Health
Services, Service Plan Summary 2002/03 – 2005/05 at 6, online:
British Columbia Ministry of Health Services
(date accessed: 14 August 2002). [Tab 93]
Research Advisory on the Provincial Cuts and Violence Against Women,
“Health and Mental Health Services: Anticipated Impact on Women who Experience
Violence” (2002), British Columbia Institute Against Family Violence, online:
British Columbia Institute Against Family Violence
(last modified: 10 April 2002). [Tab 100]
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