EDMONTON — This morning, Friends of Medicare released an interim report titled, “Filling the Gap: Examining the Downloading of Health Care Costs onto Alberta Municipalities.” The report examines the often overlooked role that Alberta municipalities are increasingly playing in ensuring access to health care services in their communities.
“As Albertans continue to struggle to access the care they need, and as our health care system undergoes significant changes in the delivery of services, it has become increasingly necessary to track and understand how these changes are impacting different levels of government, including municipalities,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “Yet no one is doing that. What Alberta desperately needs is provincial leadership, including a robust health care workforce plan focused on retention, recruitment, and training. What we are seeing instead is this provincial government consistently attempting to download its responsibility for providing timely access to quality public health care.”
The interim report states:
Although health care is a provincial responsibility, the Alberta government’s inadequate response to the health care crisis has resulted in municipalities increasingly assuming costs of providing health services.
It highlights that local governments have primarily aimed to improve health services in their community through two policy tools: using municipal funds to offer direct financial incentives for doctor and other health care worker recruitment and retention, and by directly providing funding for clinics or other health care services.
“As we’ve toured the province, we have spoken to many municipal leaders who are trying to find ways to fill the gaps in the health care services available in their communities. Which too often means using municipal tax dollars to fund what is clearly provincial jurisdiction,” said Gallaway. “Financial incentives for doctors to move to communities, towns buying up primary care clinics, and other municipal initiatives are happening throughout the province, yet no one is tracking this at a provincial level or evaluating these policy tools. We are working to change that.”
This report is an initial step in assessing how municipal governments are becoming involved in health care, what costs this poses to communities, and the efficacy of these initiatives. Friends of Medicare will continue to collect data over the coming months to document a clearer picture of what is happening, and encourages municipal leaders to help by filling out our survey to help with this data collection.
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