For Immediate Release July 12, 2005
Government’s plan more of
the same private health agenda
Albertans have long rejected two-tier care for the privileged.
With today’s announcement the Alberta government continues its decade-long push to turn health care into a profit centre for some investors, says United Nurses of Alberta.
“When the government says “choices” it means that wealthy Albertans with private insurance can get a higher standard of care than others, and that’s not what Canadian medicare is all about,” says United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith.
“It’s going to take more than a teaspoon of sugar to make this go down. This is the same thing they’ve been trying to foist on Albertans for over ten years.”
The government announced it is going to decide what is medically necessary and what is not covered by public health care but is an enhanced service. People would have the “choice” to pay directly for enhanced services or to buy private insurance to cover them.
Lower quality care for the rest of us who can’t afford – or are refused – extra insurance would be the final result of today’s announcement. This is a direct route to two-tier medicine, with better care for the wealthy who can afford to pay more, charges UNA.
“Why should I have a lower quality artificial hip, or more pain and a longer recovery time if I can’t get private insurance?” Heather Smith asks.
“This is a plan to bring more private insurance into the Alberta health system and it will end up costing all of us a great deal more,” Heather Smith said.
“This is a blame and bleed plan,” she said. “Blame people for their health problems and then bleed them dry, paying for them. They are pandering to the self-interest of some health entrepreneurs.”
The UNA President also questioned the implications of the “third way plan” on waiting lists.
“Which patient do you think will get priority, the one who is getting a regular hip or the one getting an enhanced hip where they can charge an extra fee?” she asked.
“Our waiting lists are based on need. Right now the patient with the most critical need goes to the top of the list. Albertans really do want it that way, but this government doesn’t like to hear that.”
“Waiting lists are getting under control since the huge funding cuts of the 90s have been largely reversed,” Heather Smith says. “Our system is NOT broken, and what we heard at the both the government’s Health Care symposium and the Friends of Medicare conference was that tinkering with private insurance and private delivery is a recipe for disaster. More private, for-profit delivery will cost us all more. But that’s exactly what the government is contemplating here.”
“This government’s relentless agenda of privatizing health care is completely contrary to what Albertans believe,” says Heather Smith. “Albertans have strong values that the care and health of our families is not something to be bought and sold. We do not believe better care should be sold to the highest wealthy bidder. We do not believe in two-tier care.”
| 
