All parties should research alternative health care
By Letter to the Editor on March 27, 2019.
Do not drink the NDP Kool-Aid. Ms. Notley would have you believe the greatest threat to universal health care is the privatization of select services. The reality is Bill 1 is the greatest threat. Alberta currently spends $2.4 million every hour, every day, on services that, according to the most recent stats on both a national and global level, are less than ideal. In fact, wait times for a variety of referrals and surgeries have grown. Throughout the world several countries, 27 to be exact, provide universal care using more efficient models. Our mistake lies in conflating universal health care with public health care. If, as polls indicate, Albertans truly believe in care for all, it is incumbent on all electorate and party candidates to research alternative models. Reacting to rhetoric and fear-mongering does us all an injustice and threatens the health-care ideal we strive for. Barbara Pasternak Medicine Hat 5-4
Do the math! At that rate her additional 90 million invested in healthcare won’t go very far to reduce wait times.
If you want private health care then please move to the US. Notley is correct, private health care does not work. What happens in the US is that you work your entire life, retire, and then spend your entire savings trying to prolong your life for 5 more years thereby transferring any wealth you have created back to the top 0.1%. I enjoy our system the way it is. Although you may WANT a knee replacement, you may not receive it immediately, but if you NEED a knee replacement then it will surely occur. Please do not make feeble arguments whereby you confuse NEEDS with WANTS!!!!
At no point in the letter was an American model of healthcare endorsed. I took the advice offered and looked into other funding models for universal care. Perhaps you should do the same. May I suggest the following article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/opinion/health-care-germany.html
Also, google Finland and research their system.