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Speech for Press Release Friday January 26, 2001 Friends of Medicare in Edmonton and Calgary are
holding simultaneous press releases to kick-off our “Remember Bill
11” campaign. Last year, despite opposition and protests from
more than half the people in this province, the Klein government passed
Bill 11—a law supporting private, for-profit hospitals and a two-tier
health care system, one for the wealthy and one for the rest of us. The government dismissed research findings from reputable international journals on the failure of for-profit health care, and it dismissed the views of the people. Bill 11 passed, the government failed, democracy
was denied. If this
government is re-elected, we think it will support more private,
for-profit facilities, and use our money to subsidize market medicare. The day after Bill 11 was proclaimed law, the
government announced a number of contracts with private health
companies. We believe that
if the conservatives get re-elected, they will quickly move to sign
several new contracts--contracts currently on hold until after the
election. Friends of Medicare believe the provincial
government is directly responsible for the unacceptably long waits for
adequate treatment and current shortages of medical professionals and
facilities. It is not the
patients who are abusing emergency departments as Klein suggested, but a
government that, to support it’s false claim that “spending was out
of control” massively cut funding and paved the way to their
solution--privatization. Premier Klein also promised to elect Regional
Health Authorities—they were all appointed.
And Friends of Medicare has investigated and informed the
government of conflicts of
interest within the CRHA--the government failed to take action. Recently, within two months, the government
announced $867.6 million dollars for health.
But that’s a one-time injection that does not allow Regional
Health Authorities to plan sustainable improvements in services.
That funding looks more like a public relations maneuver than a
genuine commitment to health care. Provincial Health Minister Gary Mar is on record as
saying he sees no problem with allowing patients the choice to pay for
treatment or wait. But the
choice most patients face, especially regarding MRIs, is to pay out of
pocket for medically necessary procedures, or wait months worrying about
a diagnosis and treatment that comes too late. That’s an unacceptable
choice, and the harbinger of things to come. We’re concerned that Regional Health Authorities
will become Canada’s version of American HMOs, with managers seeking
HMO salaries. Overall, Canada’s public health system is cost-effective compared with other nations, notably the U.S. On a per capita basis, American health care is nearly twice as expensive as Canada’s because administrative costs are higher. The American Medical Association concluded that “market medicine is a failure” and that “investor-ownership is consistently associated with lower quality [health care]”. Similar conclusions are drawn from the privatization experiments of England, New Zealand, and Australia. Yet the Klein government forged ahead with their privatization initiative. Our solution to health care problems is based on
extensive, reputable research--adequately fund and improve management of
our current public system that, under the Canada Health Act, is publicly
administered, publicly delivered, and provides comprehensive, universal
access. This would enable health care workers to devote
their expertise to patient care without compromising their professional
standards because of financial constraints or profit incentives. Given the past performance of the Klein government,
it’s abundantly clear that Albertans need a watchdog to guard the
public health care system. Friends
of Medicare is that watchdog, but we need your active support to ensure
that quality care is provided to every man, woman, and child regardless
of geographic or economic circumstances. Our campaign is to remind, inform, and urge Albertans to work with us to repeal Bill 11. We hope you will display a “Keep Medicare Public” sign—on your lawn or in your windows. We hope you’ll vote for a candidate who is clearly opposed to Bill 11 and committed to strengthening public health care. We’re also distributing many free copies of our
brief video, “What Does Democracy Look Like?”
This video captures the tremendous energy of Albertans who
protested the government’s privatization initiative.
It concisely presents the dangers Bill 11 poses to universal
health care: higher costs,
queue-jumping, and market medicare. Necessary public services like health care,
education, heat and utilities need effective public management and
public delivery, not deregulation and privatization. Please help us preserve and enhance public health care by phoning xxx-xxx-xxxx for your signs and free video. |