EDMONTON — November 19 - 25, 2023 marks National Addictions Awareness Week, meant to be an opportunity to learn and to highlight ways to address harms related to substance use.  As we mark NAAW this year, Alberta continues to set records for deaths due to drug poisoning. This week must be a time to commit to doing better.

Every year, November 14 is recognized as World Diabetes Day. This year’s theme is Access to Diabetes Care, a reminder that we have a long way to go to ensure those living with diabetes in Alberta have access to the care they need.

Albertans will remember last year, when the UCP government announced that they would be terminating the Insulin Pump Benefits Program, impacting up to 4,000 Albertans with diabetes. Following massive public outcry from Friends of Medicare, Pump 4 Life, and thousands of grassroots Albertans, the government finally conceded by announcing they were stopping their plans to end the Insulin Pump Benefits Program and instead, struck a working group to consult on diabetes care. No new announcements or improvements to coverage have come since that working group was formed.

EDMONTON — Following yesterday’s leaked documents, Danielle Smith’s government followed through on announcing a massive restructuring of public health care in Alberta, as well as a new Alberta Health Services Board chaired by a former conservative cabinet minister, Lyle Oberg. None of this was part of the UCP’s platform in this year’s election.

After years of unprecedented pressures on our public health care system, health care workers and patients in this province are seeking certainty when it comes to something as important as our public health care system. They aren’t looking for changes of this scale being directed by politicians, rather than health care experts and community needs.

Today, the Alberta NDP released documents which show the UCP government’s intent to dismantle Alberta Health Services, with a drastic plan for restructuring and the potential for even more contracting out of Alberta’s vital health care services.

The outlined plan would be a massive undertaking that would impact every area of our already struggling public health care system. It provides little information to suggest how it will improve local decision making power as purported. Instead, the UCP government intends to disassemble and silo the various sectors of our public health care system, potentially creating even more barriers to access.

This afternoon, Gurinder Brar, MLA for Calgary North East, tabled Bill 201: the Alberta Health Care Insurance (Access Fees) Amendment Act. If passed, this legislation would ban access fees and membership-only health care, and require the Minister to enforce the Act.

EDMONTON — This afternoon, Danielle Smith tabled her first Speech from the Throne since being re-elected Premier. The speech promises disappointingly little in terms of protecting and improving Alberta’s public health care, and continues to push their failing agenda of privatization. There was no indication as to how the government plans to repair the damage they have wreaked on Alberta’s public health care system, besides proposing a vague commitment to decentralize health care decision making.

Today is Tommy Douglas Day!

Every year, October 20 is a day for us to celebrate the contributions of Thomas “Tommy” Clement Douglas: the "Greatest Canadian" and the man who brought universal public Medicare to Canada. It is a day to recommit ourselves to the vital work of protecting and strengthening our public health care system.

It also happens to be my 40^th birthday.

And what I really want this year, my birthday wish, is that you take a moment to join us in the fight to save our public health care system by becoming a member of Friends of Medicare, or renewing your membership for 2024.

A Reflection on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:

We cannot claim to have universal Medicare without ensuring it includes everyone. This means getting serious about finally addressing the deep health inequities that Indigenous people continue to face in our province and country; it means taking the necessary action to close the structural gaps to accessing care; it means meaningfully addressing the social determinants of health; and it means dismantling the systemic racism built into our health care system.

On September 7, Friends of Medicare hosted a public townhall event in Edmonton, on how we can achieve a national, universal, public townhall for all. 

We were joined by panelists Elizabeth Kwan, Senior Researcher for the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Pauline Worsfold, Chair of the Canadian Health Coalition (CHC), and Judy Lederer, President of the Edmonton Area Council of the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada (CURC) and co-chair of the Alberta Pharmacare Working Group. We heard from our panelists and participants about how critical this political moment is in the fight for a universal, public drug program — and how important it is that we don't miss our chance to act on it.

Judy Lederer also sits on the board of Friends of Medicare, and has shared her presentation with us here: