This election has got me rattled to the core. In layman's
terms "pissed". Both the Progressive conservatives and the Wildrose
parties are behind the Privatizing of healthcare in Alberta (oh hell let’s be
honest here, in the whole damn country; we are just one province so far). This
is a concern every Albertan, Canadian and citizen should be concerned about.
This is our healthcare, the one social program that keeps us alive. Lets’ strip
this apart a bit and break it down. Right now we have Alberta health care which
pays for hospital care (not private wards), surgery, doctor appointments, x-rays,
cat scans, MRI's, and much more. Ok they don't pay for medicine; unless you’re
already in the hospital then they do pay for the meds that nasty nurse who works
night shift come into your room to give you. Shining their little flashlights
into your face and shoving that 2 am pill down your throat cause you need it,
handing you a glass of water while telling you that “you need to try and sleep”.
Was I not already doing that? Oh my bad, I will try again till you come in at 6
am and shove another one at me. Yes folks they are not really nasty, they are
only doing their jobs but at 2 am are you really thinking they are just doing
their jobs or do you think they are trolling you. I think they are trolling me
at 2 am personally. What is trolling? You ask. Trolling, Defined
by Wikipedia, describes intentionally
provocative actions and harassment. So yes, I think that nurse was trolling me at 2
am.
Anyways back to breaking down our health care
as it is now and as it will be after privatizing.
We know that
Alberta health pays for a lot out of public coffers. This is good. We also know
that we need extra insurance to pay for medication which we can buy from places
like London Life, Merit, Alberta Blue cross and many, many more insurance
providers. This usually can be afforded by middle class working Albertans. Some
employment even offers extra health insurance which is deducted from your pay
cheque monthly. This is actually a bonus to many working class Albertans. For the low income working class this isn’t
an option to purchase if the company you’re working for doesn’t offer it. So they
are only left with Alberta health care which is really better than nothing
since they can still see a doctor free. Medicine, glasses, dentistry are all on
a pay bases here in Alberta if you do not have that extra insurance and it is
not cheap. However fall down and break
your arm, it is free to get an x-ray and have it reset as well as casting it. Now
take away this free public service, that fall down break your arm will cost you
somewhere between $5000.00 to $20,000.00. OMG you say how can that cost so much.
Well lets’ break it down a bit further. If we allow privatized healthcare in
the country the public coffers will dry up. No government will keep shoving
money into the public coffers if they don’t have to. This means Alberta Health
care will have to privatize as well to keep paying for the services they
already pay for now, creating” just another insurance company”. In this “just
another insurance company” they will limit, like all the other insurance
companies out there, a cap of funds you and your family are allowed to use a
year. SO say they pay only half of your bill 50%, not going to use dollar
numbers at this time (even though there is a set amount of dollars allotted per
12 months or person, depends on the insurance company you go with) as I don’t
want to make this too much about the math as the idea of what we are facing, so
breaking that broken arm medical attention down you see something like this:
Please note this
was taken from a blog, American women who had this injury. You can find her
blog here (http://dineane.hubpages.com/hub/My-20-000-Arm-A-Rant-about-Healthcare-in-the-US)
Pretend this is
all in Canadian dollars too. Otherwise I would have to up the costs to convert
to Canadian and as I said earlier it is not about the numbers, as much as about
the idea I am trying to make.
Pharmacy
$442.95 (meds they give you to help with pain)
Non Sterile Supply $157.00 (maybe gauze, or a drink of water)
Sterile Supply $1,623.00 (the kit they open to examine you with, rubber gloves
? maybe)
SUPPLY/IMPLANTS $9,702.00 (if you need screws and bolts to keep the arm in
place, say you do )
Diagnostic, Radiology $618.00 (x-rays and the doctor actually looking at them
after )
OR Services $6,050.00 (same as above only split to confuse you more)
Anesthesia $564.00 (this is to put you to sleep, to put the arm back in place
so you don’t have to modify your shirts for the rest of your life)
DRUGS/DETAIL CODE $20.00 (no clue the original girl who I got this from is
trying to still figure this fee out)
Recovery Room $586.00 (the place they take you to after you leave the waiting
room)
Grand
total: $19763.95
so, say now your insurance pays 50% of this total. 9881.98. Woot! This
is great but is it? Nope cause now your portion is also $9881.98. Hmm where can
you come up with this amount of money before creditors start calling you
demanding payment? Sell a kidney? Maybe, an option if you can find a dark alley.
Take out a loan? Opps banks hate your credit. Remove it from your savings? If only you had a
savings. Call your parents? Sure if they weren’t on a pension and barely making
ends meet themselves.
Or you could just decide that it might be worth redesigning
all your cloths to fit that sideways broken arm you have and just let it heal
that way.
Oh! you say things like Albertans would still have Alberta
Healthcare we will just have better options, to pay or not to pay. How many
doctors ran to the USA after they graduated or found out that they could make
more money in the USA? Well I can tell you for sure 3 of my “family” doctors
left back in the 90’s to move to the USA to make more money. This is why today
I don’t have a “family “doctor anymore and I visit Medi centers. At least if
they leave I won’t be attached to them and my health records won’t be sold to
the next doctor because those records belong to the Medi center I visit, not
the individual doctor. Doctors in the USA can set office visit prices, where as
in Canada Public health sets those prices. They also set prices on procedures
and so much more. If you let a doctor or a private health organization set
prices then they will go up. No different from lawyers setting their fees. You think
150.00 an hour is bad to see a lawyer, try paying that out to see a doctor for
a 15 min visit. In fact I walk into a clinic to see a doctor without Alberta health
care today I would have to pay 40.00 min. that does not include anything else
ex. Needing a prescription or a referral to see a specialist.
See Privatizing means the clinic can charge whatever they
want to charge to the patients. Exactly like a Dentist. Oh sure, the dental
association fee guide puts in numbers to say what everything costs; but that
doesn’t mean that dentists can’t set their own price. It is just a guideline of
what insurance companies will pay and what they won’t. The example is scaling
two units; dentist charges 97.00 yet the guideline say 94.82 yet my insurance
only paid out for the 75.86. That leaves me paying not only what my dental
coverage didn’t pay for but the over fee that the dentist charged compared to
what the guidelines says I should be paying. These fees start to add up if the
problem is bigger. If we privatize it also means that Doctors can not charge a
publically funded program like Alberta Health care and can only bill private
health insurance companies. If you can’t afford to take your kid to the dentist
now because you do not have the extra insurance this will mean you will not be
able to take them to a doctor that is privatized either. Some will say “oh well,
this means the people who can afford to pay for privatized health care will not
be using the public health care, which will speed up the system and I will be
moved up on the waiting list”. Does it really speed it up? Sure it does, won’t deny
that but at what cost. Is my child
better than your child because I can afford to pay for a private health care
facility? Yours is still on a waiting list cause remember there are still more
people out there that cannot afford private medical services. While my child is
cured and living a great life. Is this a socialized service? We open the doors
to private clinics; it will only be a matter of time before we open the doors
to private hospital care.
So my child is having a problem breathing , I have a
hospital 2 blocks away that is privatized, I also have a hospital 30 blocks
away that is public, remember my child is having a problem breathing, hmmm
where should I go 2 blocks or 30 . Naturally I am going to hit the hospital
that is 2 blocks away cause now she/he is turning blue. Here is the kicker,
they won’t see her cause I do not have the right insurance plan… They cannot
bill Alberta Healthcare, being it is a public service. OMG! Now I have to drive
the other 28 blocks because I do have insurance for public health. Ok lets’ say
for argument sake they do take her..Yahhhhh they saved her life, home we go, 2
weeks later a bill comes in the mail. Over 10,000.00 dollars in which lets also
say for argument sake they can bill Alberta health 40% of that total
(guidelines for the medical association fee) my out of pocket is now only 6,000
.. Don’t shake your head, because the imaginary list they also sent me was similar
to the one I posted above for the broken arm. Well I can’t afford this so I don’t
pay it. Come one I know some of you out there will not be able to afford it
either. So they now send my account to a collection agency... But 6 months down
the road same thing happens or worst I rush my child into the hospital this
time they say sorry you still owe us money and we can’t see you, sending me off
to the public hospital. Remember it is a business. Don’t pay, they don’t help.
A bit off topic but same issue … Alberta allowed the
privatization of Electricity and because of that privatization we now pay 15
bucks a GJ this winter. Why?, Because they can charge whatever they feel like
charging. There are no guidelines for this at all and no competition either.
When you privatize it becomes a business rather than a public service.
Healthcare isn’t the only reason this election has me in
twists though it is just one of the major problems that both the PC’s and the
Wildrose have on the table. I am not saying vote PC because I dislike the Wildrose
(even though I dislike them a lot) I also dislike the PC party right now as
well. I am saying that instead of voting for either of these parties vote for
one that you know will not win. Don’t give them a majority leadership. As much
as I don’t see any worthwhile candidate we should be voting for the one that
will cause the less damage to our province in the next 4 years. Send the Wildrose
and PC party a clear message. Take privatizing off the dockets’ and keep it off.
"...I won't let it happen. I won't... I won't let this world exist without me!"
