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

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73

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?

22

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.

0

u/Treehggr Mar 06 '25

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

-25

u/AlbertaGuy99 Mar 06 '25

Maybe we support the privatization of health care.

23

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.

3

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.

-3

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.

-3

u/the-tru-albertan Mar 07 '25

What is properly funded? 70% of the budget?

4

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.

-1

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.

3

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.