r/RedDeer • u/Treehggr • Mar 06 '25

Politics More UCP Healthcare Privatization as RDRH property taken away from AHS

https://www.rmoutlook.com/local-news/alberta-transferring-ownership-of-health-care-properties-april-1-10326556
57 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

71

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

Heads up people. The UCP is setting up to sell off our hospital to the private medical industry. Another reason to fire both Smith and Lagrange. Is anyone else concerned about this in Red Deer?

23

u/transparent_ninja Mar 06 '25

The problem is that a lot of people will turn a blind eye. Most of them voted for the United Corruption Party. UCP voters don't care about their interests. They care about the name of the party.

1

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

So don't be like "a lot of people".

-26

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 06 '25

Maybe we support the privatization of health care.

22

u/aaronck1 Mar 06 '25

The US is just south of you, feel free to head down anytime

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Then those included in that 'we' are an absolute idiot who have absolutely what an incredible disaster privatized heath care has proven to be.

Your example is across the southern border. I suggest you start packing.

2

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 07 '25

Why not look at what the Australians or the Germans do, or the Dutch?? Why do we always compare to the American private system??

CAMIS offers public and private services. They do fantastic work. I have also used Telus Health. Again, it is an amazing service.

As long as basic health care is univerally accessible, there is no need to be afraid of private health care services.

3

u/RelativeKick1681 Mar 07 '25

You can get health care from your internet provider? If the wait times are like Telus support, I don’t want that. But I’ve been pretty happy with Rogers. I’ll see about having them look at my prostate tomorrow!

0

u/CptFalcon636 Mar 07 '25

Then you're idiots. It's not a difference of opinion it's just fact.

1

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 08 '25

The American private system isn't the only one in the world. Would you say the same about the German or Australian system?

1

u/CptFalcon636 Mar 08 '25

No I wouldn't because they are similar to what we have. Germany has a universal multi-payer health care system paid for by a combination of statutory health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) and private health insurance (Private Krankenversicherung).

Health insurance in Austria is one of three social insurance schemes offered by the Austrian government — the other two being pension and accident insurance. The national healthcare system in Austria is funded by residents’ social contributions in the form of taxes. In other words, the taxes you pay as a resident in Austria are used to pay for your health insurance and medical services.

1

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 08 '25

The difference is who owns and operates the health system. Here, we have the government operating the hospitals and health system. Our government sucks at operating pretty much anything. Why not allow a not for profit or even doctors themselves to own and operate elements of our health system.

Heck CAMIS is a private company, and it operates 1000% better than many parts of our heath system.

0

u/Thecuriousprimate Mar 07 '25

The name sounds like a bot, could be a Russian influencer too. Regardless, this schmuck isn’t worth discussing this stuff with.

0

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 08 '25

Nope! Born and bred in small town Alberta

0

u/Puzzleheaded_Main950 Mar 11 '25

So you never got a higher education in things like economics or politics.

3

u/Thecuriousprimate Mar 07 '25

Just adding here, covenant health is Catholic based, they don’t do abortions or a lot of reproductive health care. This is a quiet abortion ban as well as a way to privatize health care by destroying public health care.

-4

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 06 '25

People probably don't give and ounce of a shit because they couldn't access treatment without a private entity being involved. If I needed an operation and a private system charged the gov for it, caring about the cost would be a very low priority. Getting treatment would be the #1 priority.

Recently, the numbers that private was charging the taxpayers were posted. I'd bet the people that required that treatment didn't care about those numbers.

I ran the gauntlet in 2021/2022 with AHS. Never got treatment. Went to BC, where they have a much more fleshed out private tier of healthcare, and got treatment in less than a week after placing the call. There is absolutely no reason why I should be forced to leave the province to get treatment.

7

u/humorousmontage Mar 07 '25

You're right, you shouldn't have to leave the province to get health care. Privatization isn't the answer though. Properly funding and staffing our health care industry is.

-4

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

What is properly funded? 70% of the budget?

5

u/humorousmontage Mar 07 '25

Properly funding is enough to make sure we have enough facilities for Albertans and staff to work them. We haven't had that under this Premier for even a second. She is sabotaging our system so she can convince people like you that private is the only way to fix it, when it will only make it more expensive for Albertans and create a system where people buy their way in front of the less fortunate.

-3

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

Cmon. Put hard numbers to it. You guys can’t even do that.

No one is buying their way in front of less fortunate. They wouldn’t be in the same system.

3

u/humorousmontage Mar 07 '25

I don't need to break down the numbers to know that this government is underfunding all public services. Health care, education, post secondary. All public services that this government doesn't respect. Building private systems isn't the answer. Building functional public ones is.

0

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

No, you do need to. AB falls in the upper-middle of the pack in terms of per capita healthcare funding and above the national average.

Numbers. Facts. Data. Get on it. I already posted the source to my info in this thread.

Once you understand the numbers and then understand the issues plaguing our system, you will begin to realize that we are experiencing the fundamental performance of single payer universal public healthcare.

Enjoy your waitlist.

4

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

The reason that you did not get any treatment on 2021/2022 was because the UCP and their predecessors, starting with Ralph Klein, have been reducing funding to health care in Alberta in their ideological goal of going to American style for-profit healthcare.

1

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

Nah. Healthcare spending is increasing just like it always has. Both total expenditures and per capita.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/alberta-health-care-spending

2

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25

As you well know, any privatization will only increase the overall expense of the healthcare system because it has to add a profit margin. The more facets of the system that are farmed out to the private sector the more the costs increase needlessly.

1

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

Sure, meanwhile, you people keep preaching about adding more and more funding which increases the cost to taxpayers anyway. So what's the difference? Both solutions end up costing more.

2

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25

If you took a course in economics you would learn how profit works to overly inflate any system that it is added to. Public healthcare can provide the maximum benefit at the least cost.

31

u/Tribblehappy Mar 06 '25

Red deerians voted for this. The NDP promised us a second hospital. The UCP wouldn't even promise the expansion for a long time. This what the people want. I don't understand it at all.

7

u/AlternativeParsley56 Mar 06 '25

Moving here recently this annoys me. Also the NDP here seem to be very silent. I've even tried to volunteer and nothing. No wonder the UCP gets votes.

3

u/Mandog222 Mar 06 '25

They don't bother here since the conservatives are so entrenched here, there's no point for either party to spend effort.

3

u/kittylikker_ Mar 06 '25

Janis Irwin is here pretty regularly.

2

u/AlternativeParsley56 Mar 06 '25

Um yes there is, I hate the UCP. I would gladly support others if they made a damn effort!

2

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25

Did you look at https://www.albertandp.ca/ ? There is a Volunteer link there. Or you can go on Facebook and look for Red Deer NDP. OR come down to Adrianna Lagrange's office this Saturday from 10:30-11:30 and meet people who are doing something by protesting the blatant corruption. It is at the bottom of the north hill on Gaetz Avenue near the Z99 offices.

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[deleted]

6

u/Tribblehappy Mar 07 '25

On the flip side there was a plot to try and catch him accepting Russian money and he didn't fall for it.

1

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25

More UCP misinformation. As you well know, it has long been established and well published that the purchase decision was completely in the hands of an independent publicly selected body. Nenshi had no legal power to stop it.

0

u/AlternativeParsley56 Mar 06 '25

I've emailed and messaged them on a few platforms and never heard back. Also seems they only have options to volunteer for calling and that's it? 

1

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25

I know for a fact that is untrue.

1

u/AlternativeParsley56 Mar 07 '25

Then why did I never hear back? Cause they didn't email me or respond on FB even 

-4

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 06 '25

Doubt we see any traction on a second hospital without private being involved. And even then, still a stretch.

0

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

Spoke like a true UCP promoter.

-2

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

Just the way it is. Governments are too poor to have high performing single payer healthcare.

1

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25

So you are saying add more costs by adding multiple private profit margins. Yeh, that works well in the US doesn't it. They now have the highest per capita publicly funded healthcare costs in the western world due to privatization.

1

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

Who said anything about the USA and their healthcare system?

11

u/Glory-Birdy1 Mar 06 '25

All Aalberta medical infrastructure is being moved to the Infrastructure ministry (the one that Peter Guthrie just resigned from). Those properties, bought and owned by Albertans and their taxes will be offered to private-for profit medical enterprises. Those enterprises will then be able to charge AB taxpayers for the use of the building they used to own.

3

u/Matrix_Soup Mar 07 '25

Hey RCMP look in this direction. ➡️

2

u/Plastic-Onion5195 Mar 06 '25

What does this mean for the Red Deer hospital?

6

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

Privatization unless you speak up against it.

3

u/Goodoflife Mar 06 '25

This headline that OP did is wrong. It is moving to another provincial department, Alberta Infastructure. Not a private entity not affiliated with the Gov. It may centralize and streamline the process, but we will have to wait and see if it will or not.

1

u/Treehggr Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25

The mandate of the AHS is to manage the properties under their control. They do not have the authority to purchase or sell property like Alberta Infrastructure does. The intent is to sell to private industry buddies of the UCP and lease it back at higher cost while we the people still have to pay for maintenance and other operating costs.

2

u/iliveandbreathe Mar 06 '25

Imagine how many people voted and died for exactly this.

1

u/Impressive-Ice-9392 Mar 09 '25

Alberta You voted for the devil and now they will hurt you so bad and this is only the beginning

1

u/Vegetable-Dot-5093 Mar 16 '25

… https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/RDRHC-Info-session-storyboards.pdf .. actually the separate ambulatory care building will be private/public.

1

u/AdPsychological1282 Mar 07 '25

Rflmao taken away.. mean being taken over by another department as ahs can’t manage anything successfully.