For Immediate Release November 07, 2005
Alberta hires multinational giant to sell Albertans something they do not want: for-profit health insurance
Hiring one of the biggest global insurance corporations to plan the move back to private health insurance should be a clear sign to Albertans that huge corporate interests lie behind the government’s insurance plan, says the United Nurses of Alberta.
“The government is hiring AON, one of the world’s largest insurance corporations, to help them sell Albertans something we do NOT want,” says UNA President Heather Smith.
Over 40% of Albertans “strongly oppose” the Alberta government’s proposals to move to more private insurance coverage of health care services, according to a survey of Albertans commissioned by UNA.
Fully 78% of Albertans agreed that “Private insurance companies are more concerned about making profits than about paying for the medical services people need. That’s a good reason for me to oppose the Alberta government’s plan," according to the survey of 400 people, which was conducted in October by Viewpoints Research Ltd. from Winnipeg.
“People are rightfully suspicious of the government’s moves toward private insurance coverage of services now provided in our public health system,” says UNA President Heather Smith. “Albertans get it, when you talk about alternative sources of funding and private insurance companies, the real source of funding would be their pockets,” she said.
According to the survey, 78% agree that “Buying private insurance to cover medical services will be much more expensive for families than having these services covered by the existing tax-funded Medicare system.”
“We need a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a government that actually listens to what their citizens want. No one wants to go back to the private insurance days in health care, to the American insurance system.
Albertans have a clear understanding of some of the pitfalls of private insurance services, UNA points out. The survey shows 77% agree that “Albertans have seen how private automobile insurance companies increase premiums and restrict service. I’m concerned that the same could happen if the role of private health insurance companies increases in health care.”
According to the original RFP the contract with AON is to investigate the “start-up investment by the Government of Alberta to defray the “front-end” costs of shifting all or part of the health services described in the schemes from a publicly funded approach to an insurance-based funding approach.”
“The government is very careful to say that it is only looking at private insurance to supplement the public system,” Heather Smith points out. “But they are still working on implementing the plan from that other great insurance company man Don Mazankowski. The key to Mazankowski’s report was “alternative sources of funding” for health services other than government budgets. Private insurance companies could take costs out of government budgets, but they would go into premiums Alberta families have to pay. And the companies are hungry to open this whole new market for making money.”
“I think we should be very concerned by the fact that AON, like so many private health corporations in the U.S., has faced fraud charges,” she says. “Providing care to everyone who needs it is definitely not the priority of these large corporations.”
Implementing even a partial private insurance system leads to two-tier health care where those who can afford premiums can get better services, or get ahead in the line. That would run totally counter to the Medicare principle of equality: even the poorest child is entitled to the best care. It also totally overrides the belief that care should be based on need, the most urgent cases go first no matter how wealthy, insured or uninsured.
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For a copy of the poll results contact: Keith Wiley, Communciations 780 425-1025
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