EDMONTON — Confidential draft legislation obtained by the Globe and Mail outlines plans by the Alberta Government to bring two-tier health care to Alberta. The amendments would establish an unprecedented model whereby physicians could privately charge patients for insured care services, while simultaneously billing the public health care system.
“Yet another secretive, backroom plan to privatize Alberta’s health care. Since being elected, we’ve seen this government repeatedly renege on their promise to ensure public health care, and instead have systematically laid the groundwork for two-tiered health care,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “But this is beyond the pale. This is an unprecedented attack on Albertans’ public health care, and if allowed to pass, would unequivocally bulldoze a path for American-style health care in Alberta. It’s hard to see how this wouldn’t contravene the Canada Health Act.”
Alberta already allows physicians to bill privately, as long as they opt-out of the public system entirely. But these amendments would allow doctors to work concurrently within both systems, and permit them to set their own fees and pick and choose “on a case-by-case basis” which services they would provide privately, without any requirement to disclose to the government which services or “specific circumstances” would warrant their decision. These changes would make Alberta the only jurisdiction in Canada to allow doctors to work in both systems at once.
“Albertans know our health care is in crisis. But the only ‘solution’ this government ever offers is more and more privatization in our labs, surgeries, seniors care, and most recently, hospitals,” said Gallaway. “They’ve constantly sought new ways to funnel our public health care dollars into private profits, and look at what that’s got us: higher costs, longer waits, and chronic understaffing. But this government is seemingly intent on doubling-down on their failed privatization experiment, no matter the financial or medical cost to Albertans.”
This comes during ongoing investigations by both the Auditor General and the RCMP into allegations of corruption against this government, accusing them of interfering in private, for-profit surgical contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Another Auditor General report on the government’s failed community labs contract with Dynalife is scheduled for release tomorrow. But this hasn’t slowed the government’s privatization agenda: just last month they announced plans to permit charging Albertans out of pocket for diagnostic services.
“There are urgent public solutions that health care workers, and advocates like Friends of Medicare, have long called for and which could be established right now to fix short staffing and increase public capacity, but they’ve repeatedly been ignored,” said Gallaway. “This government is abjectly failing in their duty to ensure that every Albertan has timely access to the quality public health care they need — not just those of us who can afford to pay for it. These changes need to be thrown out immediately.”
Friends of Medicare urges all Albertans to speak out against the Alberta government’s destructive plan to bring American-style, two-tiered health care to Alberta by contacting their representatives, and joining us at an upcoming community townhall.