FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 16, 1998
Health council report sends
dangerous message
It's wrong to suggest that Medicare is not affordable, says Cormack
EDMONTON -- The report released yesterday by the government-appointed Provincial Health Council sends a simplistic and potentially dangerous message, says the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. Audrey Cormack warns that the report -- which says further health care reforms are necessary to make the system affordable -- might encourage some people in business and government to push for increased privatization of health care services. "By making the argument that the public system won't be able to handle the demands placed on it by aging Baby Boomers, the Council is playing into the hands of those people who want to introduce more private health care. They'll argue that more private care should be allowed to pick up the slack," says Cormack. "But it's wrong to suggest that Medicare is not affordable. The problem is not that health care is too expensive -- the real problem is that our leaders don't have the political will to fund it properly." Cormack points out that funding for health care in Alberta has plummeted since the Klein government was elected. According to statistics compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information -- a joint project of Statistics Canada and the federal Health Department -- per capita spending on health care in Alberta dropped by 17.5 per cent between 1993 and 1997 -- from $1,924 to $1,588 (in 1997 constant dollars). "In five years, we went from having the highest level of per capita funding in the country to having the lowest," says Cormack. "That's the real reason we're having problems with health care in Alberta -- not because of aging Baby Boomers." If the Health Council really wants to improve the quality of health services available to Albertans, Cormack says they should call on the provincial government to use a greater portion of its huge budget surpluses to increase health care spending. "Instead of calling for things like differential premiums for smokers, the Council should put the blame for the current crisis in health care where it really belongs -- on the shoulders of the provincial government."
For more information call:
|