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For Immediate Release September 14, 2005
More wrong way!
Government wants to pay insurance companies to plan our health care
More light was shed on the Alberta government’s plan to have private insurance take over from public Medicare with a Health and Wellness “Request for Proposals” on how to “shift” from a public health system to a for-profit insurance system.
“The government is looking to pay private insurance companies to plan how to privatize our public health care system,” says UNA President Heather Smith. “We can save them a lot of money, Albertans can tell them right away that making Alberta families pay private insurance premiums to cover health costs is NOT a feasible option. Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days of private insurance healthcare,” she said.
The Proposal document makes the government’s intentions clear. They are looking at “shifting all or part of the health services described in the schemes from a publicly funded approach to an insurance-based funding approach."
“This proposal would turn virtually everything except emergency treatment into a private insurance plan,” Heather Smith points out.
“I can’t imagine that after our experiences with car insurance that Albertans want to entrust their health care to private insurance companies,” she said.
“This would be a huge change in health care in Alberta and should have a full public discussion. We expect the government will fully disclose all the results of this proposal, including which companies get the contract to make the plan and of course, how much private insurance would end up really costing Albertans,” said Heather Smith.
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