The B.C. Ministry of Health has launched a lawsuit against Vancouver to make the city pay for the extensive health-care costs of a man who was hit by a car on a street near Chinatown.Spotmatik/Getty Images/iStockphoto
The B.C. Ministry of Health has launched a lawsuit against Vancouver to make the city pay for the extensive health-care costs of a man who was hit by a car on a street near Chinatown.
Those costs are likely to be high. Paul Tynes suffered a severe traumatic head injury, a basal skull fracture and fractured left ribs. He was left with balance, memory and vision problems, along with seizures, fatigue and depression, according to the statement of claim filed earlier this year against the city.
Vancouver is accused of "failing to ensure that the sidewalk and roadway were reasonably safe" and "failing to properly maintain trees and shrubs" when Mr. Tynes was hit on Prior Street on Aug. 16, 2009.
That claim, filed in B.C. Supreme Court Jan. 28, sounds startling and nightmarish, both for the victim and for the city, which is now apparently being held responsible for every motor-vehicle accident on its streets.
In fact, that lawsuit is an anomaly, because the city is usually one of many defendants in claims filed by the victim's lawyer, not the ministry.
However, it brings to light the fact that municipalities have been quietly paying part of the health-care costs for all kinds of accident victims since B.C. passed new legislation called the Health Care Cost Recovery Act on April 1, 2009.
That new law was passed to replace informal negotiations between the province and insurance companies over who would pay what part of hospital costs if someone was injured. It was intended to make third parties share the province's spiralling health costs.
But it also went much further than similar laws in other provinces.
Elsewhere, insurers for cities, corporations or other contributors to an accident are asked only to pay a share of hospital charges. B.C.'s act added in all health-care costs, from ambulances to lab tests to family support.
The new act was "an unprecedented move by the provincial government to shift the burden of health-care costs from the Medical Services Plan to the insurers," Vancouver lawyer Jonathan Hodes wrote at the time.
In the end, taxpayers cover these costs – usually through the insurance premiums their city or regional government or transportation authority pay – but do not know about them.
They do not show up in budgets or financial statements except as insurance premiums or legal costs.
Vancouver's communications department was unable to provide the number of cases the city has settled under the new legislation or the amount of money paid.
The only information the health ministry provided was a brief statement, including these numbers: "On average, during 2013/14, approximately 300 health care cost recovery cases were opened per month. The ministry has recouped approximately $21.8-million in health care costs via the Act."
The new B.C. law concerned city councils in the past.
Local politicians argued through their association, the Union of B.C. Municipalities, that it was a waste of money for one taxpayer-supported institution to sue another taxpayer-supported institution.
The province was not sympathetic to that argument.
Its response: "Municipalities, if negligent, are no different than any other group or individual. It would be unfair to hold all taxpayers responsible for paying health care costs for a specific municipality that has been negligent."
Four years later, cities seem to accept the process. In Vancouver, city manager Penny Ballem said that most of the time, the city and the ministry have a "pretty constructive discussion" about what share the city should pay.
And, ultimately, Ms. Ballem said, "it's certainly an inspiration for all local governments to be taking care of risk management and quality control."
Frances Bula