Wednesday, February 13, 2013

This Day In Snookland....What's Another $150 Million?

AllTheIDCardsThatFit
TrackEveryoneVille


You may or may not have heard of the new BC Services Card that links everything to everything, including your driving and health records.

So.

Why do we need this potential invasion of privacy?

Well, according to the Snooklandian Minister of Health at least, it is because of healthcare fraud.

CKNW's Shane Woodford has that side of the story:

...Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says the new card has features which will help cut down on Care Card fraud in the province.

"With a lot more security features. It is going to have photo identification and people will have the choice in having a combined drivers licence and BC Services card or they can have them separate but the services card will be replacing the Care Card our current Care Card."...



But, when pressed a little, Ms. MacDiarmid's argument turned to dust in a cloud of non-facts and bad grammar. Here is more from Mr. Woodward's report:

...(W)hile MacDiarmid says there is some fraud happening she can't say how much it is costing taxpayers.

"There is a lot of estimates out there and I don't think there is anything difinitive you know people have made estimates and I don't think it is a good idea to do that but we do believe there is some fraud and we believe there is some safety issues around it as well as the monetary issues."..



So.

Speaking of those 'monetary issues' that Ms. MacDiarmid mentioned...

How much is this thing actually costing us?

Well, Global had a report on that:

...(T)he (provincial) government argues the new cards, which will cost $150 million over five years, will improve patient security and guard against health care fraud...


Gosh.

Wonder which highly securitized Snooklandian crony, if any, has that 100% fraud-free contract?

(which, of course, can be paid for by clipping just a tiny bit of magic moola-dust from the mane of all those Snooklandian Sparkle Ponies that we heard about yesterday)

.

4 comments:

Hugh said...

I don't need no stinkin card. I pay the healthcare fee and that's good enough.

RossK said...

Hugh--

Don't know about you, but, in the absence of any specific data and/or examples, my take is that the good Minister is calling us all potential fraudsters.

You and me included.

And I take umbrage with that.

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Kim said...

If they would eliminate the illegal MSP premiums, we wouldn't have to spend the $150 million preventing people from accessing their universal health care. Who manages the data, Lockheed Martin?

RossK said...

Kim--

That is a really, really excellent point.

If we were to extend it a bit...

Based on their 'fraud' logic it could be argued that, essentially, they have created a cronyfiable market by charging us those bloody premiums...Given that, it's almost as if we, ourselves, are the rivers being violated by this particular IPP-type scam.

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