Instead of cuts, Liepert should increase health-care spending
Delisting services boosts costs for businesses, consumers; threatens economy
By David Eggen and Diana Gibson, The Edmonton Journal
April 19, 2009
Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert has been very economical with the
truth on the health-care budget. He picked one of the few lines in the
budget that is up, while the overall budget for Health and Wellness has
actually been cut.
Infrastructure spending has been cut by almost $1 billion from what had
been budgeted in the capital plan and is down more than $600,000 from
last year. The total Health and Wellness budget did not get the
3.7-per-cent increase needed to account for inflation and population
growth. And now, delisting insured services has been raised.
While nations around the world are increasing spending to counter the
recession, Alberta is cutting. As part of its stimulus plan, China
announced it would spend $123 billion by 2011 to establish universal
health care for the country's 1.3 billion people, on the premise that
spending would put more money directly in Chinese consumers' pockets.
Even the United States, so infamous for its poor health care, has anted
up for increased health spending this year.
Instead of stimulus spending, the Alberta conservative government is
kicking the economy into what could be a serious tailspin. And if the
budget announcements were not bad enough, Liepert says he plans to delist
more services and may cut additional health-care infrastructure spending,
including much needed hospitals and long-term care beds.
Last month, Alberta lost more than 14,000 jobs, a trend that is likely to
continue. The $913-million cut from the capital budget will put 10,500
construction workers out of work. What better place for them than
building health-care facilities that will be much needed as our
population ages? Alberta is still recovering from shortages created by
the last downturn. The lack of long-term care beds continues to cause
backlogs and delays in hospital emergencies which have real
costs.
The infrastructure cuts have other costs as well. Currently,
infrastructure can be built at bargain prices. Delaying construction may
mean that the costs are much higher. Knowing the need is there and having
the workers in need of jobs, it is financially prudent to build that
infrastructure now and staff it now.
Other jurisdictions are also trying to bolster the economy by putting as
much money as possible into the hands of consumers and
businesses.
Liepert is doing the opposite, increasing business costs and taking money
out of the pockets of consumers. Delisting and de-insuring services
amounts to a direct transfer of costs from the province to businesses and
individuals.
Any service that is delisted or de-insured will be added to the long
growing roster of privately insured services paid for by employers,
causing rates to go up. Private insurance costs are already rising at
rates in excess of inflation.
It would also take money from consumers. Only about half of Albertans are
covered by workplace health benefits. For those who are not covered,
costs will also shoot up. The cap will be taken off of what professionals
can charge and they will raise fees to cover the loss of
patients.
Vision care is one of the services that has already been de-insured. This
resulted in a 17-per-cent jump in vision care costs in one year
alone.
Transferring costs out of the public health-care budget into private
insurance is not a path to sustainability. Australia provides a good
lesson on that front. In Australia, the subsidies necessary to get people
to enrol in the private health insurance cost more than if those services
had been kept in the public system.
This is not the time for Liepert to make his bottom line look better at
the cost of Alberta's employers, especially small business which would be
hit hardest. Those already struggling may be forced to lay off workers as
costs become prohibitive.
Alberta has choices for public health care. A pointless $4.5 billion in
subsidies were announced this year alone for oil and gas drilling,
despite the fact the both conventional oil and conventional gas peaked in
Alberta years ago. Also, according to government figures, Alberta is
forgoing between $10 billion and $18 billion in tax revenues every year
compared with other provinces. If there is anything that is not
sustainable, it is the tax cuts and drilling subsidies.
Investment in health care and the province's health-care budget will need
to increase as our population grows and ages. Polls show that Albertans
want public health care, not tax cuts, but what they get is tax cuts and
health-care cuts. A Nanos research poll showed that more than 55 per cent
of Western Canadians support deficit financing and two-thirds say it is
important "... that the government increase investment in public
services like health care, social services, the justice system and
education during a downturn." In addition, 71.1 per cent of
participants favoured "government investing in health care, social
services and education," compared with 19.9 per cent who wanted
"government financial support for businesses in the automotive,
forestry or mining industries."
David Eggen is executive director of Friends of Medicare and a former NDP
MLA for Edmonton-Calder. Diana Gibson is research director of the
University of Alberta's Parkland Institute
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
