I agree with John Kennair (Gazette, April 28; “Healthcare solutions”) that “Healthcare could be a potential campaign issue for Alberta’s next election.” Where we disagree is on the dynamics of the issue. Kennair, not too subtly, supports the heavily unionized, public monopoly for hospital and physician services.
Hence, his usage of the phrase “luxury good available only to a few” to describe health care before the government-run system that today we know as Medicare. Kennair ignores the existence of the first non-profit medical insurance program, Medical Services [of Alberta] Incorporated, or MSI.
Established in 1947 by the Alberta Medical Association, MSI “eventually provided insured medical services to over 90% of Albertans,” according to medical historian Dr. Robert Lampard of Red Deer. In most people’s understanding, “over 90%” is much more than “only a few.”
When Kennair, however, addresses the sustainability of Medicare, then he spotlights an issue that is relevant to every patient and every taxpayer. He identifies “burgeoning costs, which our governments are struggling to contain.”
For example, in the early 1980s the Alberta government spent about 30 cents of every dollar on health care. Today, it’s in the low 40 cents, and it would be higher if not for the government’s decision to have deficits finance operating costs. And, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman has warned it will reach 65 cents in less than two decades if nothing changes.
Every dollar in the province’s health care budget means one less dollar available for health-related government priorities such as low-income support, public housing, seniors’ programs, education and the environment. Sustainability of Medicare is a real problem, one that we should be solving and not transferring the financial burden onto to future generations.
Kennair’s assertion that “the privatized system … does undermine the ideal of universal healthcare” is, at best, misleading. The performance of Canada’s health care system ranks ninth among 11 countries (France and the USA are behind us). Significantly, all countries ahead of us have private-sector hospitals and physicians, and all rank ahead of Canada on “equity.”
Kinnear appears to minimize the failings and shortcomings of Medicare by describing it as “barely 50 years old.” Yet, no other country in the world, especially the newest superpower, China, is copying the Canadian health care system.
The question to be answered is not the one posed Kinnear: How “far do we want to turn back the clock.” Rather, the question for the future is: “How do Albertans have timely care to quality care?” As the Supreme Court of Canada has observed, access to a wait list is not access to care.
Albertans and all Canadians deserve to have patient choice here in their own province and their country. Governments use rationing to force people to wait weeks, months or even more than a year for surgery and diagnostic services is inexcusable. Rationing can impose pain and suffering on the patient who is waiting, can disrupt family life and livelihoods, and can result in financial hardship. Each of us and all of us deserve much, much better.
Ronald Kustra, St. Albert
Spokesperson, Association of Canadians for Sustainable Medicare
