Public Health Care is being HiJacked!

[Tonington]

I have no soft spot for Harper, as his government has done some really awful things, in my opinion. But I don't see anything to be concerned with here. You cannot make fundamental changes to an Act without Parliamentary debate, and Harper is not stupid. He would not dare poke that lion in a cage with a minority mandate.

 

[TenPenny]

Take a moment and read my original post.
Ron Liepert Alberta Health Minister was on television saying he was going to open the Canada Health Act in order to make changes to the coverage of Albertans. He at the same time this was not delisting.

This has come to pass after the last, recent Premiers meeting which the Federal Minister of Finance attended.

Liepert would not have made an announcement saying there would be changes made to a Federal Act unless he had knowledge the Canada Health Act was going to be opened for changes.

I saw a guy on TV talking about something, or at least my brother's neighbor's sister's housecleaner told me she did.

Got any facts?

 

[Unforgiven]

The point of all this is if Harper is defeated in this election the whole process stops. If a new Government wants to take it up I think it will be done with more public openness, more than a dropped word in a news broadcast.

I agree with much of the concern you have with a Conservative government. Though I don't have much hope for something better with a Liberal government under Iggy at the moment.

 

[cyberclark]

Tonington

: You are correct. Debate and publication in the Gazette. I would give my eye teeth to find out what went down in that last Ministers Meetings.

 

[VanIsle]

I think each province is pretty much in control of how they deal with issues such as what services will be covered by medical and which will not be. When Campbell was first elected he immediately closed hospitals, opted out such things as podiatrists, physical therapists, RMT's, Chiropractors and Optometrists. All of those services used to be either fully paid for or partially paid for by government. Now they are all forced into private practice. Once again we were stupid enough to vote this Premier back in and once again, at a time when we could be facing a pandemic, he is cutting medical services. He is raising the cost per month the people of BC pay for medical services of BC. The Federal Gov't might be in control of the actual Health Act but beyond that - every province is different and it seems to me that for the most part, that's what counts.

 

[cyberclark]

The CHA establishes criteria and conditions related to insured health services and extended health care services that the provinces and territories must fulfill to receive the full federal cash contribution under the Canada Health Transfer (CHT).
The aim of the CHA is to ensure that all eligible residents of Canada have reasonable access to insured health services on a prepaid basis, without direct charges at the point of service for such services.

 

[cyberclark]

Insured physician services are defined under the Act as "medically required services rendered by medical practitioners." Medically required physician services are generally determined by physicians in conjunction with their provincial and territorial health insurance plans.

However Canadian Hospitals cannot do for profit care on US insurance customers/patients.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

US health care companies could always open up shop in Canada.

Problem is, there are not enough private health care providers for it to make much sense.

My understanding is that US companies can insure only those services which are not covered by the public system, they are not allowed to issue insurance for the services already covered.

As to private health care providers, I suppose it is possible for a physician to opt out of the public system and try to exist solely on private medical care. But since he will have to collect his fee from patients directly (again, there is no insurance for services publicly covered), I don’t think he will have much success.

 

[TenPenny]

My understanding is that US companies can insure only those services which are not covered by the public system, they are not allowed to issue insurance for the services already covered.

As to private health care providers, I suppose it is possible for a physician to opt out of the public system and try to exist solely on private medical care. But since he will have to collect his fee from patients directly (again, there is no insurance for services publicly covered), I don’t think he will have much success.

It is absolutely possible for a doctor to opt out of medicare, and bill directly. There are, for example, clinics that do 'industrial medicine', physicals and evaluations etc for industrial jobs, and all of that is non-medicare work.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

It is absolutely possible for a doctor to opt out of medicare, and bill directly. There are, for example, clinics that do 'industrial medicine', physicals and evaluations etc for industrial jobs, and all of that is non-medicare work.

Sure it is possible, TenPenny, but the point is, somebody has to pay for it, and you cannot buy insurance for the services. In industrial medicine, I assume industry would pay for it.

There are some non public service jobs, like Workman’s Compensation board (I assume Workman’s’ Comp pay the doctor, not Medicare).

Or how about becoming doctor to a celebrity? Michael Jackson was paying his private physician 150,000 $ per month (and I understand he still had money problems).

But such jobs are few and far between. By and large, it is very difficult for the average doctor to opt out of the public system.

 

[cyberclark]

This begs the difference between US and Can Workers Compensation. The US at one time tried to junk ours through NAFTA.

In Canada Workers compensation is funded by provincial deductions on employers and the fund pays for medical etc directly from the Workers Compensation of the province.

In ths US Workers compensation is a law which tells companies what level of coverage they have to have in place for their workers. A company may for instance have their health care through the "Get Well" company. More often than not they will also purchase their workers compensation package and integrate it with the same company.

This is why law suits are so prevalent in the US on Work injury and is next to nothing for suits in Canadian courts.

This is still another aspect of privatization and a glimpse of the market in Canada that the US consortium want to get ahold of.

 

[GernB]

This will affect every man, woman, child, province and territory in Canada!
We recently seen Mr. Ron Liepert of Alberta on Television telling Albertans he was going to delist services in the Alberta Health care and open the Canada Health act to do so.

Once opened, anything can be changed in the act. There is no possible way to get an agreement before hand about what to change and what not to.
Alberta has Legislation set aside (Alberta Gazette) that will allow US health insurance companies to open shop in Alberta.
Mr. Liepert has told us the Blue Cross rates for coverage were increased to bring them more in line with the private insurance sector.
The Capital Health Authority made a long list of what services to delist (turn them over to the private sector).
The privatizing of the public health system has been a prime target of Conservatives and a keystone in their policies since their conception.
They now will allow the Canada Health Act to be changed to a list of choices by provinces to follow, rather than a list such as it is now, one to be followed. Harper is on side with this otherwise, there would have been no public announcement.
The changes will affect all Canadians, not just Albertans. Doing away or changing the Canada Health Act which we know now will take place sometime between October and December this year; if Harper is still prime minister.
If Harper is not Prime Minister, Alberta’s attempts to gut the public system will be seriously curtailed.


John Clark Alberta--The Details

The Alberta government has been chipping away at health care since the early 1990s, it has nothing to do with Harper. They did eliminate basic health care premiums this year.

Health Minister Ron Liepert has said he wants to delist chiropractic and some physiotherapy. He is a bit of a wingnut, and is said to be on his way out of cabinet, or to be demoted, because he has a habit of making policy statements without clearing them first.

Premier Stelmach is in trouble here, he is perceived as a country boy who is in way over his head. There is a leadership review this fall, and he may not keep his job. Now that the Wild Rose Alliance has chosen Danielle Smith as their leader, there may be some hope of opposition in this province. I hope so. The Liberals and NDP here are simply hopeless.