EDMONTON – Albertans should brace themselves for higher health-care
premiums, fewer services covered by health care, and a debit-style user
card to track health costs.
Those were some of the 44 recommendations in a report on the future of
the province’s health care.
It’s not clear which of the recommendations made by the Premier’s
Advisory Council on Health will be implemented and which will be
quietly forgotten.
Members of the cabinet, treasury board, policy committee and health
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department will ponder the recommendations over the next two weeks,
look at the government’s bank account, listen to the reaction of
Albertans, put their finger to the wind and announce by the end of the
month what Alberta’s new health-care system will look like.
“We will have an action plan ready to go before the end of January,”
said Alberta health minister Gary Mar, who announced the reform plan
during a Jan. 8 news conference with Alberta premier Ralph Klein and
former Progressive Conservative deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski,
who was author of the health report.
Unlike a series of other reports commissioned on the province’s
health-care system over the years, the government seems poised to act
on Mazankowski’s recommendations.
“I want to assure all Albertans this report will not be allowed to
gather dust on the shelf,” said Klein, who plans to present the details
at a premiers’ meeting in Vancouver at the end of the month.
The premiers will discuss their joint presentation on health care with
former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, who is heading a federal
government study of Canada’s health-care system.
Mazankowski and other members of the advisory council were asked 16
months ago to find ways to keep Alberta’s $6.4 billion health budget
from spiralling out of control. About 30 percent of Alberta’s annual
budget is spent on health care.
“Our council concluded that unless we are prepared to change how we
fund and how we deliver health care, Alberta’s health-care system is
not sustainable,” Mazankowski said.
While no recommendations have been accepted, there were strong hints
the government will be going ahead with some of the recommendations
quickly.
- An expert panel will be formed to decide what present or future
health services should be funded or delisted.
The committee would also establish the criteria to determine whether
new diagnostic treatments, services and drugs should be covered.
Delisting services will likely be the catalyst that triggers Ottawa’s
opposition because Alberta would no longer provide universal health
care, a major part of the Canada Health Act.
“This is where we find we might have a challenge to the interpretation
of the act,” Klein said.
“I am 100 percent sure that challenge is going to be raised.”
- Health-care premiums will rise by one-third. About $4.8 million of
the province’s $6.4 billion budget is raised through health-care
premiums. A family’s annual premium costs would jump to $1,088 from
$816. Individual premiums would rise to $544 from $408.
“We have to find new ways of funding and paying for the health care
that we desire,” Mazankowski said.
“We’re advancing that a modest increase is an option that could be
considered to diversify the revenue base.”
- More services would be contracted out. The report recommends a
mixture of public, private and not-for-profit health organizations and
providers.
- The development of an electronic health record, starting with health
cards. The cards would track individuals’ health along with treatments
and medications.
They would also allow Albertans to see the cost of health services they
use, which could encourage more responsible use of the health-care
system.
Klein and Mar said none of the recommendations have been accepted yet.
Some can be implemented immediately while others require changes to
legislation or budgets.
Opposition members weren’t sure the recommendations followed the spirit
of the Canada Health Act.
Alberta Liberal health critic Kevin Taft said health care is not a good
commodity for market forces and shouldn’t be offered to the cheapest
bidder.
Alberta New Democrat leader Raj Pannu said the report is a serious next
step to shifting the costs onto the sick, injured and the poor.
Christine Burdett, chair of the Friends of Medicare, said the report
moves costs of health care onto the people who can least afford it.
Former British Columbia premier Dave Barrett, now with the Tommy
Douglas Research Institute, said the expert panel would decide if an
individual’s rare disease was too costly to cover.
“This is the beginning of a drift away from what the prairie provinces
pioneered.”
