CBC
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
MSP privatization challenged
 BCGEU president George Heyman |
VICTORIA - The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union has gone to court in an effort to block the privatization of the Medical Services Plan by the provincial government.
BCGEU President George Heyman says the union objects to the government's plan to turn MSP administration over to an American multinational.
"We are asking the court to find that selling the administration of medicare to an American multinational corporation is a violation of both the Medicare Protection Act of B.C. and the Canada Health and the Canada Health Act."
Heyman says unless the sale is stopped, the personal information of British Columbians would become accessible to the FBI under the Patriot Law in the U.S.
The BCGEU's lawyer, Murray Rankin, say it gives the FBI and other U.S. government agencies unlimited access to company databases.
"The test is whether the corporation in the United States has access to the documents and ability to obtain the documents," he says. "Technologically, access would not seem to be much of a problem."
But Health Minister Colin Hansen says B.C. residents don't need to worry that their medical records might end up in the hands of the U.S. government.
The government says patient privacy will be mandatory and personal health information will continue to be protected.
