{"id":628911,"date":"2026-10-13T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628911\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T03:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:00:09","slug":"as-eby-warns-against-health-care-privatization-conservatives-say-hes-fearmongering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628911\/","title":{"rendered":"As Eby warns against health-care privatization, Conservatives say he’s ‘fearmongering’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby took his campaign on the offensive on Monday, warning that a B.C. Conservative government would move towards health-care privatization. <\/p>\n

Eby pledged to maintain a fully public system, and suggested a Conservative government would emulate Alberta, which recently allowed some doctors to practice in both public and private care<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s a model Eby said allows people to pay to skip to the head of the line, while pulling doctors, nurses and technicians from the public system.<\/p>\n

“It’s unfair. I say it’s anti-Canadian,” Eby said. <\/p>\n

“If we have a challenge in our health-care system right now, its a shortage of health-care workers \u2014 now can you imagine what that would look like with even fewer heath-care workers for you and your family.”<\/p>\n

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Under Alberta’s model, doctors must work a minimum number of hours in the public system to be eligible to work in private care, but critics say it opens the door to a two-tier system<\/a> and could lengthen wait times for people who rely on public care. <\/p>\n

The B.C. Conservatives said no one was available for an interview on Monday. But the party was quick to respond to the attack, calling it “fearmongering.”<\/p>\n

“[B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Dickson has] committed to protecting health-care funding and keeping B.C.’s system universal and publicly funded,” the party said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“British Columbians will never need anything more than their health card.”<\/p>\n

The party said Eby’s attack showed the NDP are “increasingly desperate,” and meant to distract the public from the government’s record which includes a string of ER closures and an ongoing shortage of family doctors. <\/p>\n

CBC News asked the party if it would rule out allowing people to pay for medically necessary treatment or bar doctors from working in a private system, but has yet to receive a response.<\/p>\n

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During the 2024 election campaign under former leader John Rustad, the the B.C. Conservative Party said would increase the use of private medical clinics<\/a> to cut wait times for treatment covered under the Medical Services Plan.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Green Party, meanwhile, said the NDP lacks credibility on the issue, noting it had spent millions of dollars on private agency nurses while in government.<\/p>\n

“Why should we trust Eby on health care?” Green Leader Emily Lowan said.<\/p>\n

“He sent nurses to the picket lines, he cancelled seven long-term care facilities and funneled public money to private health contractors.”<\/p>\n

The NDP said Monday it would phase out agency nurses over the next three years.<\/p>\n

CentreBC said it too opposes private health care, but said the NDP was the wrong choice to fix the system given its current challenges. <\/p>\n

“It’s clear that the NDP have not prioritized multiple ER closures across British Columbia,” Leader Elenore Sturko said.<\/p>\n

British Columbians go to the polls in less than two weeks, on Saturday, Oct. 24. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-628911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}