Some 20,000 seniors living in residential care facilities will pay more for their room and board starting in January, British Columbia health minister Kevin Falcon announced today.
The top rate, will go up by $22.10 a day from the current maximum of $74.30. Three quarters of the people living in residential care will pay more than they do now, Falcon said.
The lowest rate will decrease $1.50 from the current rate to $29.40 per day. Falcon said some 25 percent of seniors in care will see their fees drop.
Overall, the change in rates will see seniors living in the facilities pay $53.7 million more a year to the government.
“It will be very straightforward,” said Falcon, noting that people will pay 80 percent of their after tax income for their care. “Will they be happy about it? They certainly probably will not be.”
The change will be “fair, equitable and defensible” and will put the system in good shape as the number of seniors in the province increases, he said. “I don't think this is a time for us to avoid difficult decisions . . . We're going to do the right thing now.”
“He's dramatically increasing residential care rates,” said New Democratic Party health critic Adrian Dix. “If you make $22,000 a year you're a rich senior according to Kevin Falcon.”
That's not much money, he said, but even people with that low income will see their rates go up by nearly $2,000 a year. “Seniors just above the poverty line are getting soaked by this government.”
It's hard to believe Falcon would call that fair, he said. “No wonder there's public cynicism around this minister and this government.”
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
right
And all that is assuming you are lucky enough to find a place that is not already overbooked!
And it's not just the residents
The facilities themselves have been screwed too. The average increase for licenced residential care facilities was 1.3% this year, but the government mandated they pay wage increases exceeding 2% to their employees, not to mention increases in costs of all kinds such as fuels, food and insurance. Oh, and don't forget to pay for minor capital improvements under $5000 out of your operating costs too. Even the church-run facilities which operate without profit are hosed and are having to cut necessary staff to keep the doors open. If you can't find any RNs on shift to care for your aged ones, don't blame the LPNs they replaced them with. There's no money left. I know one place that doesn't even have a photocopier. Staff do their copying and printing unpaid after hours at the local 3-cents a copy place or at home on their own dime.
But if you're building a big new assisted living facility and you're for-profit - chances are good you can get your capital and operating grant signed off right away....
This government disgusts me.
Except for Falcon's mom!
I can't wait to share residential care facilities with all of the old and retired MLA's!
May actually have fist fights between some of the residents to look forward too!
Who would have thought.
Now the liberals are going after those in residential care. I guess the cowards know that they won't fight back. Way to go Falcon. You really showed you got b---s.
Seems like a big increase to
Seems like a big increase to me. I guess they need to pay for the owelympics somehow.
Swindling our Semiors
Falcon doesn't give a damn that seniors' pensions change little from year to year.
They are going after their last penny.
This government is a bunch of disgusting charlatans.
They are snakes.
shameful act
You have stooped as low as low as you could go Kevin.
Our Seniors for heavens sake. Shame on you all.
You and your cronies. I sure hope your family members have more than enough not to end up in a home.
Next thing due out will be a
Next thing due out will be a reminder to seniors that they have overstayed thier welcome and he can arrange a nice ice flow for them to spend some time. This government is cruel
One would guess that Falcon's.....
......bid to be premier has come to an end. Screwing seniors, many with dementia and incurable diseases, having their lives slowly ebb away in care homes, must give him a political orgasm.
First Gordo screws school kids by taking monies away from sport programs; then he steals monies from the arts; and now screw the seniors. This man; this government is the epitome of pure evil and should be treated as such.
And the Liberal lickspitals who so happily go along with Gordo's malevolence and those people who vote for this evil mob are no better than the Nazi's of old.
BC is run by a most evil person and what must happen to wake people up to the fact and remove this pustulant stain on humanity.
$660 per month increase
that is a huge increase for seniors and their spouses on fixed retirement incomes.
And what happens to spouses that are relying on the spouse-in-care's retirement income?!! Are they reduced to being paupers?
where is the compassion
Mr. Falcon and Mr. Campbell obviously don't understand what it means to imagine yourself in another's shoes...to respond with compassion...
In case they aren't aware of it, this will mean that many people will not be able to afford this care. It will mean that the spouse left at home may not be able to afford to stay in the home the couple shared because the rates take too much of the family income. It will mean that the spouse who is more healthy will keep an ailing spouse at home long beyond when they need to be in care because the expense will break them. It may mean that senior couples will have to endure legal marital separation in order to protect the income of the spouse who is not in care -- these are unbelievably horrible situations that seniors will be faced with.
Mr. Falcon, Mr. Campbell, where are your hearts?
Gee, thanks Kevin :-)
The Hon. Kevin Falcon, the MLA behind "beaking off" is now just doing burnouts of what was a good run at the Premiership. Wow! He needs to get himself on YouTube and get "beaking off" daily!
That's no excuse for saying Kevin Falcon is evil. Please... he's just an entertainer who should have stuck to transportation and keynotes for the BCLibs. He replaced a great BCLibabe in Judith Reid :-). So come on, give Kevvy a break.
Of course, if the BCLibs hire Kevvy as Premier... I hear he'll be Premier just long enough for TheTyee.ca commentors to fire him!
Falcon's Con
As of January, 2010 the maximum daily rates charged by each province for residential care rates will be as follows according to the press release on the BC Government website(yearly cost in brackets):
Alberta-$54.25($19,801.25)
Quebec-$54.36($19,841.40)
Saskatchewan-$62.20($22,703.00)
PEI-$69.30($25,294.50)
Ontario-$71.07($25,940.55)
Manitoba-$71.80($26,207.00)
New Brunswick-$83.00($30,295.00)
Nova Scotia-$86.50($31,572.50)
Newfoundland-$93.33($34,065.45)
British Columbia-$96.40($35,186.00)
British Columbia's maximum rate is currently $74.30 per day. Thus we go from fourth highest in Canada to the highest. The Canadian average before the announced increase is $72.01 and the new Canadian average will be $74.22 per day. Come January 1, 2010 we will be higher than the national average by $22.18 per day or put another way, 29.88% higher. This is also 77.7% higher than Alberta.
Falcon and Co. also provide a list of minimum retained income by province which is as follows:
PEI-$103/month
Ontario-$119/month
Newfoundland-$125/month
Quebec-$188/month
Saskatchewan-$188/month
New Brunswick-$200/month
Nova Scotia-$221/month
Alberta-$265/month
Manitoba-$271/month
British Columbia-$275/month
Now assume that a resident has $40,000.00 net income(which is just a little less than one needs to attain to pay BC's maximum rate) and they must pay the maximum fee for their respective province. Their left over funds, which they must use to pay their income taxes, medical expenses and general living expenses are as follows. If one accepts the maximum retained income above as stated by Mr. Falcon then the tax burden levied by the feds and the respective provincial governments appear in brackets.
Alberta-$20,198.75($17,018.75)
Quebec-$20,158.60($17,902.60)
Saskatchewan-$17,297.00($15,041.00)
PEI-$14,705.55($13,469.55)
Ontario-$14,059.45($12,631.45)
Manitoba-$13,793.00($10,541.00)
New Brunswick-$9,705.00($7,305.00)
Nova Scotia-$8,427.50($5,775.50)
Newfoundland-$5,934.55($4,434.55)
British Columbia-$4,814.00($1,514.00)
We know that the federal tax rates are the same for all Canadians. Does that mean that some provinces have income tax rates that are up to 10 times higher than BC. This is highly unlikely that there would be such spread. Logic says that Falcon is blowing smoke. And the losers once again are those than can least defend themselves. This is a deplorable turn of events and must be reversed.