International students in B.C. will continue to pay for health services when MSP premiums are gone next year.

Heath Minister Adrian Dix says by January 1st, all K-to-12 and post-secondary students will pay $75 dollars per month for health servics.

He says there are nearly 90,000 international students in B.C.

“Since 1992 there’s been this contribution made. There’s some changes that affected K-to-12 students in 2016. This has always been the policy in British Columbia under multiple governments to maintain this contribution in this system. This makes sense for us; if you’re asking 90,000 people to get private insurance, the administrative cost burden would be significant.”

The province is eliminating MSP Premiums on January 1st and replacing it with the Employers Health Tax for businesses.