Susan Thompson
Smoky River Express
Albertans will have to wait for the next provincial budget to find out if the province will cut funding for up to 30 different health services.
Dunvegan-Central Peace MLA and Minister of Employment and Immigration Hector Goudreau recently told a Rotary Club meeting in Grimshaw services not covered under the Canada Health Act might be delisted by the province. Alberta currently funds a number of different health services not covered by the act, such as chiropractic care, physiotherapy, and eye exams for children and seniors.
According to an article that ran in the February 11 edition of the Mile Zero News, Goudreau said, “There’s no need to cover them.”
The comment sparked a storm of controversy across the province, with media in Calgary and Edmonton picking up the story and critics such as opposition parties and health care groups charging that such cuts would threaten public health care and open the door to more private insurance.
Goudreau was unavailable to comment further on the issue when approached by the Express. Alberta’s Health Minister Ron Liepert has so far refused to confirm that the services will be delisted, saying only that he is still in the process of developing the budget and has nothing to announce yet.
But Liepert has also been widely quoted as saying everything in the current health care budget is up for careful consideration.
Speaking to reporters in Calgary, he said, “Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be doing my job as minister if we didn’t look at every line of expenditure in our budget and ask the question, do we need to spend that money?”
Liepert has also said anything protected under the Canada Health Act will continue to be covered, and Goudreau initially told the Rotary meeting that Blue Cross will likely be expanded to cover any services that lose provincial funding.
Goudreau was originally speaking in Grimshaw about the future of health care in Alberta and the new administrator who will be joining Alberta Health Services March 23, Stephen Duckett of Queensland, Australia.
In the Mile Zero article, Gourdeau said, “Our system is totally not sustainable.”
He added that how health care in Alberta is rendered is evolving and will be very different in ten years, but in his opinion the new Health Services chief executive is unlikely to move Alberta to a two-tier health system.
Dave Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, says our current system is sustainable if the proper investments are made in health now.
He points out that most of the services Goudraeu said may be delisted are preventative in nature, and it’s cheaper in the long run to pay for preventative services that help maintain people’s good health rather than to pay for more serious problems down the road. Liberal leader David Swann made similar comments to media in February.
However, Eggen adds, “It’s less of a question of saving money and more of an issue of trying to narrow the scope of what public health care is, and we find that to be unacceptable.”
“It’s important to not think of medical services as being so arbitrary that you can bring them in or bring them out according to whether you want to balance your ledgers in the government. If we presume that a procedure has been deemed to be medically necessary it doesn’t change arbitrarily when the government is looking for places to cut.”
The idea of cutting any health services didn’t go over well with local seniors gathered for coffee at Club Alouette in Falher. It’s thought that any cuts to current health services would impact seniors the most.
“I think services should be maintained,” said Aline Houle. “A lot of seniors are on a fixed income.”
“Let alone paying for services, we have to travel so far to get them, so right there, that’s a big expense already,” pointed out Marilyne Despins.
“There isn’t provision of services in our area, and that’s a big downside,” agreed Houle.
Most of the men and women at Club Alouette said they use services like chiropractic and acupuncture to relieve pain and maintain their health, and have to travel to Peace River or Grimshaw, if not further, for their appointments.
The next provincial budget is expected in late March.
