Alberta Friends of Medicare
News Release
October 1, 2009
Friends of Medicare calls upon Health Ministers to make extra-billing and user charges public
“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” does not protect Albertans
Friends of Medicare has retained legal counsel to send letters to both the provincial and federal health ministers asking them to fulfil their responsibilities under both provincial and federal laws that protect our universal public health care system.
“Under the law our governments have a duty to protect Albertans from extra-billing and user charges and we are asking them to do so,” says David Eggen, Friends of Medicare Executive Director.
Friends of Medicare is concerned that user fees and extra billing may be going undetected. “Based on the information currently available, we cannot be sure that the Alberta government is doing its job and adequately monitoring for extra-billing and user charges,” says Eggen.
Each year, Health Canada issues a Canada Health Act Annual Report summarizing the provisions and operation of the Canada Health Act. This report includes an overview of healthcare services and health care payments in each province and territory.
“The report’s section on Alberta does not identify extra-billing or user charges at all. In the summary tables, the columns referring to private for-profit facilities and the payments to physicians show entries of “not available”. If Albertans are subjected to extra-billing or user fees, it should be reported here,” Eggen says. “There is no way of determining, from the information provided, the extent of extra-billing and user charges in Alberta.”
A copy of the Annual CHA report is available here: Annual CHA Report
“The practice appears to be that the Federal government does not ask about extra-billing or user charges, and the Alberta government does not tell. It’s don’t ask, don’t tell,” says Eggen.
“This is a failure of both the provincial and federal governments to protect citizens from extra charges or user fees,” he says.
The Canada Health Act requires that federal transfer payments be reduced if a province is allowing extra fees.
Alberta was penalized in this way when it allowed extra-billing by doctors in 1984. The financial and political pressure exerted by reducing transfer payments worked, and Alberta relented and extra-billing was stopped.
The Alberta Health Care Insurance Act prohibits extra-billing and other user charges for insured services.
“We asked Minister Ron Liepert to ensure there is reporting in place to comply fully with the Canada Health Act,” says David Eggen. “We don’t know if the Minister gets detailed information on whether extra-billing and user charges are occurring. We do know the information does not appear in the Report on the Canada Health Act.”
The letter to Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq asks her to compel full reporting from Alberta to determine Alberta’s entitlement to full cash payments under the Canada Health Act.
“It’s the federal government’s responsibility to ask and the province’s obligation to tell. Anything less leaves Albertans exposed to extra-billing and two-tier health care,” David Eggen said.
Media contact:
David Eggen
Executive Director
Friends of Medicare
Ph: 780-887-0446 (cell)
RELATED: Copies of the Friends of Medicare letters to the Health Ministers are available here
