More Pharmacare Mess

BC families that are ill enough to require thousands of dollars in prescriptions may soon be fighting with the Campbell government over the accuracy of their Pharmacare payments. Just like government has gone after people on WCB, welfare and employment insurance when they receive too much as a result of government error, so too will sick people feel the heavy hand of government as the Pharmacare registration mess works its way to a painful conclusion.

Opposition Leader Joy MacPhail succeeded in getting Health Minister Collin Hansen to admit that he doesn't know how many people completed their registration for Pharmcare. On May 12th, during debate on his supplementary estimates, MacPhail asked him how many of the necessary consent forms had been returned. Even though the accuracy of close to $700 million in payments depends on the answer, Hansen said he didn't know. A section of the Pharmacare website, http://www.healthservices.gov.bc.ca/pharme/plani/planiinfo.html, warns:

Return Your Consent Form

"If you do not return your consent form within 30 days, your temporary coverage will end. You may have to wait up to 90 days before your coverage is reinstated after you register."

Government says that it will start making payments under its new Pharmacare program as soon as a family completes step one of the registration, but registration is not complete until step two is completed. This involves returning a signed consent form that allows government to look at your income tax information. Hansen reported that of BC's 1.56 million families, slightly over 1 million have registered for Pharmacare, but he didn't know how many registrations were complete with a returned consent form. That means tens of thousands of incorrect payments may be made. There is a lot of room for error on the consent form. In a two income household, both partners must sign the form, but it might be returned with just the signature of the person who completed step one of the registration. Many people file their income tax return and then receive a notice from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency that a slight error was made and corrected. If they used their original filing to register for Pharmacare rather than the revised number returned by the taxman, their Pharmacare deductible and maximum will be calculated incorrectly. There are also likely to be a lot of errors, as there always are, with transcribed digits in social insurance and other numbers on the forms (and further errors when they are entered into the government's computers).

Remember the horror stories of government bureaucracies going after people on employment insurance, welfare or workers' compensation for overpayments? BC seniors may soon be facing the same heavy hand of government when, and if, Hansen's Ministry ever completes the paper work and decides that errors were made in initial payments.

The Campbell government is demonstrating that it is not only heartless, but it is also incompetent.