Will Alberta's private health care bill turn us all into profit centres?

A bad week for Canadian health care, my mother-in-law in Michigan, our editor and her cat

By: Ish Theilheimer

  This week was a bad week for Canadian health care and my mother-in-law, Janet Lackey in Traverse City, Michigan. Straight Goods readers were not formally introduced to Janet, but back in February, she helped us by doing some comparison pricing for our Greener Grass series comparing the costs of living in Canada and the US.
  At the time, Janet was outraged to learn that she was paying in some cases two to three times more for prescription drugs than she'd pay if she lived in Canada. This is due to public drug formularies that tend to keep Canadian drug prices in line and the more liberal use of generic drugs in Canada. The US approach to health care is that people are profit centres. Every day, Janet, retired and living alone on Social Security, pays the price of being a profit centre.
 

It looks like the next private home she'll check into will cost twice as much. They say, though, that in this one someone will be there to call the ambulance if we need it.

  This week our family had another dramatic lesson as health care consumers. Janet had unexplained fevers and ended up in hospital. The care she got, in fact, was quite good in hospital, thanks to her being eligible for Medicare. The problem began when she needed a place to go for assisted living while she recovered.
  From her hospital bed, she shopped around. The place she ended up at was supposed to be "no frills but clean." It ended up being more like Bleak House. She lay all day with no assistance whatsoever, received almost no food allowed within her dietary restrictions, and had to lug her own oxygen tank to call an ambulance when her fever recurred.
  "I thought I would save a little money," said Janet, after the ordeal was over. It looks like the next private home she'll check into will cost twice as much. They say, though, that in this one someone will be there to call the ambulance if we need it.
  I'm afraid Alberta's new Bill 11 is kind of like the "assisted living" home Janet did time in this week. According to its backers, it, too, is "no frills but clean." Critics counter that it's anything but clean. The legislation, which allows "private surgical facilities" to operate in Alberta, opens the door to private health care across Canada. For most Canadians, it leads to more health expenses to pay out of pocket and a lower quality of care than what wealthier people can get.
  Does it violate the Canada Health Act, which sets out the principles of our universal system of publicly-funded health care? Depends who, and when, you ask. Sometimes Jean Chretien and health minister Allan Rock seem to think so. Sometimes they don't.
  In April Rock claimed Bill 11 imperils the accessibility principle of Medicare. This week when the bill passed, he seems to have changed he tune and said it doesn't. What's a citizen to think?
  This citizen thinks Mr. Rock either has been to a strict discipline re-education facility - no frills but clean - or he has been severely hoodwinked. Most Albertans - sixty percent according to a recent poll - oppose the Alberta government's plan to allow for-profit clinics and hospitals. Why don't Rock and Chretien?
  The federal Liberals caved in to Alberta by allowing Bill 11. It looks like the skids were greased back in 1995 when they changed the Canada Health Act. Former health minister Diane Marleau told that story to Straight Goods in March, setting off a storm of controversy.
  Now, it won't be long before other provinces follow suit. Pretty soon, we'll all be shopping around for health care like Janet had to this week. [It isn't that Canadians have cause to be smug. If you need home care or long-term care in Canada, you'd probably face similar problems.] In the wake of Bill 11, many Canadians may have to put up with "no frills but clean" health care. Buyer beware.

  Along the same lines, check out Pat Daley's piece on how drug companies are targetting consumers with ads for prescription drugs.
  The patient as profit centre - it isn't good medicine.

  Heartless. Speaking of tough health care choices, our editor Susan Sperling faced a tough one last week. A family cat came down with something that cost about a thousand dollars more than Susan had in her bank account. The vet wouldn't do the work without a deposit, added $200 extra in charges Susan wasn't initially informed of, and charged $22/day for board for the cat until Susan scraped up the money to pay him in full. Her hilarious (I thought - some called it "heartless") account of her experiences elicited some of the most fervid debate yet seen on the pages of Straight Goods. It make you wonder. I thought a few people might have been concerned about last week's feature exposé on the new nuclear megaproject called ITER that Canada and Ontario are quietly vying to attract.
  I was shocked we received nearly no pick-up at all on this alarming and expensive prospect.

  Welcome. Straight Goods welcomes five great new interns to our midst and expresses thanks and deep regrets to the more than 150 excellent applicants from across Canada who applied. Our five new interns greatly expand our regional bases. Each brings impressive background. Our new interns are:

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