The Honorable Iris Evans,
Minister of Health,
107 Legislative Building
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
iris.evans@assembly.ab.ca
Considerations in your “third way” I would like response to:
I see waste in various levels of the health care system.
One example is the repetitive use of physicians to do mundane tasks such as the taking the weight of a child, week in and week out, over months. A limit on such actions where mundane, should be set.
Oregon’s basic naming of physician visits was I think one of the more forward documents I have read. Laryngitis; one call only! This makes sense to me.
Where my concerns lay in the private insurance side of things deals with the advance of technology and how it is applied and the sophistication of “data mining”, “DNA sequencing” and how applied is a major concern.
If a woman has history of breast cancer in her family, she will not be accepted by the private insurance company. If there is a history of cancer in any family, other members extended or immediate, will not be able to get coverage for cancer related ailments and/or treatments. Data mining will limit coverage for whole communities!
Insurance companies also will not cover the many aspects of insufficient or overactive immunological activity problems such as Lupus or M.S., if there is any kind of a history of either in the family archive. Again, the data mining aspect is a major consideration.
Data mining such as the Alberta governments (and other jurisdictions) joining with Microsoft in the early experiences in this technology has produced an insurance blind spot in Pincher Creek Alberta. This is a community excluded for a large part of private insurance because of their proximity to industry and the long term effects of that industry on their heath. Curious, sufficient information for Insurance Companies to bar coverage but inadequate evidence for Alberta to recognize problems with sour gas burning.
This, as an example of how community data details will be used and misused once in the hands of private industry! A great concern!
There is no universality in private health insurance. It is a business of deliberate exclusion. I would look for the universality in health coverage in the plan to cover all Albertans.
Medical Doctors are constrained by time. They will not be able to increase their capacity or reduce costs by serving two masters, public and private. As is their right, they will gravitate towards the private system as it pays more.
I would work towards a system which made sure there were physicians available for the full range of clients while their billing would be directed to which ever course the plan dictated. Government may want to assign payables and receivables to an outside agency but, I don’t see savings here.
John Clark 14815 – 123 Ave., Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7 Copy Hon Iris Evans. cyberclark@shaw.ca.
Minister of Health,
107 Legislative Building
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
iris.evans@assembly.ab.ca
Considerations in your “third way” I would like response to:
I see waste in various levels of the health care system.
One example is the repetitive use of physicians to do mundane tasks such as the taking the weight of a child, week in and week out, over months. A limit on such actions where mundane, should be set.
Oregon’s basic naming of physician visits was I think one of the more forward documents I have read. Laryngitis; one call only! This makes sense to me.
Where my concerns lay in the private insurance side of things deals with the advance of technology and how it is applied and the sophistication of “data mining”, “DNA sequencing” and how applied is a major concern.
If a woman has history of breast cancer in her family, she will not be accepted by the private insurance company. If there is a history of cancer in any family, other members extended or immediate, will not be able to get coverage for cancer related ailments and/or treatments. Data mining will limit coverage for whole communities!
Insurance companies also will not cover the many aspects of insufficient or overactive immunological activity problems such as Lupus or M.S., if there is any kind of a history of either in the family archive. Again, the data mining aspect is a major consideration.
Data mining such as the Alberta governments (and other jurisdictions) joining with Microsoft in the early experiences in this technology has produced an insurance blind spot in Pincher Creek Alberta. This is a community excluded for a large part of private insurance because of their proximity to industry and the long term effects of that industry on their heath. Curious, sufficient information for Insurance Companies to bar coverage but inadequate evidence for Alberta to recognize problems with sour gas burning.
This, as an example of how community data details will be used and misused once in the hands of private industry! A great concern!
There is no universality in private health insurance. It is a business of deliberate exclusion. I would look for the universality in health coverage in the plan to cover all Albertans.
Medical Doctors are constrained by time. They will not be able to increase their capacity or reduce costs by serving two masters, public and private. As is their right, they will gravitate towards the private system as it pays more.
I would work towards a system which made sure there were physicians available for the full range of clients while their billing would be directed to which ever course the plan dictated. Government may want to assign payables and receivables to an outside agency but, I don’t see savings here.
John Clark 14815 – 123 Ave., Edmonton, AB T5L 2Y7 Copy Hon Iris Evans. cyberclark@shaw.ca.
