Today Friends of Medicare launched both an online petition and a physical petition to the Legislative Assembly to urge the Government of Alberta to not introduce health care premiums. Our position is that health care premiums are a regressive tax that will negatively impact lower- and middle-income Albertans. Health care should be based on need, not on ability to pay.
The government has many options for ways to generate additional revenue (www.albertacould.org andwww.betterwayalberta.ca provide a number of ideas). Charging Albertans for health care is not the answer. We explain our position in more depth in this blog post.
We are asking Albertans to sign and share our online petition and also to download our printable petition and get ten of your family members, friends, and neighbours to sign it, then mail it back to our office (our mailing address is printed on the bottom of the petition form). Together we can ensure that health care available to all Albertans regardless of their ability to pay!