Is Alberta the Trial Balloon for Draconian Right-Wing Rule?

 While all conservative premiers are moving in the same direction - allowing more for-profit health care, encouraging private education, gutting environmental and labour laws - I think Kenney is the test balloon to see how fast this can be done to all of Canada if the CPC form government.

Of all the conservative premiers, Kenney is the most ideologically driven, almost fanatical. And he really doesn't care much what people think. The others are a bit more timorous, worried about backlash. Kenney is going in guns blazing... 

And, by conservative calculation, Alberta is the most ripe for harvesting. The far-right has a stronghold here, more so than any other province. There are fewer voices that will stand up and call the UCP out. 

Because harvesting is what they are doing. They are taking our tax dollars and giving them to corporations. They are taking money from the most disabled. They are turning their backs on the addicted. They are pushing people off social assistance. 

They are cutting back labour regulations and minimum wages, eliminating overtime pay, cutting environmental protections, opening the door to an increase in coal mining, making child labour appealing to employers, trying to grab our pension money from CPP... 

Making public education less appealing, opening the door to two-tiered medicine, supporting for-profit health care, allowing insurance rates to skyrocket, opening the door to water harvesting and continuing to woo oil & gas companies to haul away our resources... 

This is harvesting. They are harvesting everything of value in Alberta and giving it away to their friends in far-right corporations. They are driving jobs out of the province. And we don't hear a peep from the media about this because the far-right owns most of them. 

They are preparing Albertans to be desperate enough to take lower wages. They are preparing Albertans to pay for their own health care or die. They are preparing Albertans to become economic slaves to big corporations. And UCP supporters embrace this wholeheartedly. 

We are the testing ground. If we complain, they gaslight or claim we are victimizing them. They blame the NDP for any (valid) criticism of what they are doing. They are engaged in normalizing helplessness in the population. 

Their online trolls bully the outspoken, trying to silence us. The MLAs attack private citizens who raise concerns. They have a $30M war room that is completely unaccountable to anyone. They have massive PACs flooding our media with pro-UCP ads. 

This is NOT Normal. The behaviour of this UCP government is NOT normal. They are trying to make us think it is. To make us think cruelty to the province's most vulnerable is business as usual. To make us think we need a police force run by Kenney. 

To make us believe some people are expendable because of age or ability or mental health condition. We are only human capital to them. And they seem ready to weed out "the weak", the negative balance individuals, to keep the captains of industry happy. 

For the sake of our children and the future of this province, we need to WAKE UP. For the sake of Canada, we need to spread the word. What is happening now in Alberta will come to all if people keep on electing conservatives. #AlwaysVote #NeverVoteConservative #cdnpoli 

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Silencing dissent

Jason Kenney has people on the payroll whose job it is to intimidate and silence criticism of the UCP government. Albertans are, through their provincial taxes, paying for people whose job it is to silence any criticism of the government. Issues managers, spokespeople, the War Room, even some MLAs... And this doesn't begin to cover the trolls, pardon me, communications officers, that flood Twitter and Facebook when people dare to question what the government is doing.

We are literally paying people to tell us to shut up and F*ck off. That doesn't seem very democratic. In fact, it seems, well, fascist, to be honest. 

The wrecking ball that is the UCP is on a rampage in this province. Kenney has a job to do and he is getting it done while suppressing any dissent. 

From cutting off aid to Albertans he/the UCP/the CPC/the IDU consider liabilities (i.e. not contributing to corporate coffers) and justifying letting some of these people die to restoke the capitalist money machine, to paving the way for private education and health care 

I expect Jason's real bosses are fairly pleased with his progress. He is the steam roller and Albertans are the pavement. In another couple of years, there will be no universal health care, no harm reduction, no environmental protection... 

Coal mines all over the place, people with disabilities will have died or left, public education will be in tatters, and health care will only be available to the rich. It will be open season on LGBTQ and POC, and people will be desperate for any sort of job, at any rate of pay.

And people on the right, led by the UCP and their supporters, will convince people that they have a right to pay for healthcare themselves. And they have a right to work for peanuts. And... 

Alberta Bill 30 - Introducing For-Profit Medicine in Alberta

(This will likely be the first of several posts examining the 3 controversial bills the UCP introduced yesterday)

With respect to Bill 30, which will increase approval of private, for-profit clinics in Alberta, some thoughts...

There is a cap on certain procedures, like hip and knee replacements, that creates a bottle-neck beyond the limitations of a finite number of surgical facilities. Why is this in place? Why could the government not just remove the cap?

Could it be that the cap will simply accelerate the development of a two-tiered system?

Think for a moment about the private eye clinics in Alberta. They do laser surgery and other "cosmetic" (i.e. not medically necessary) surgeries, but they also do some procedures covered through public health. The public health procedures make the clinic less profit than those for which the patient pays directly. Which types of procedures do you suppose get scheduling priority? It seems obvious that the more lucrative procedures will get the lion's share of the available OR time. The lower paid procedures will fill in gaps, because it's better to have the facilities in use and making some money than standing idle. That is the way for-profit businesses work.

So, for hip and knee replacements in a private clinic, those that are covered by Alberta Health will be less profitable than other procedures performed at a private clinic. They will not get scheduled as quickly as more lucrative procedures. People in pain, and possessing sufficient means, will start asking if they can get their surgery moved up if they pay for it themselves.

The UCP will, at some point down the road, lift the barriers to patients paying for their own surgeries which are covered under the Canada Health Act, saying that the public wants this. Then people with money to pay will get their surgeries sooner, but those who cannot pay will get pushed further back down the line. And this will go on as more people decide to pay, or seek out insurance that will pay.

This would undermine the essence of the Canada Health Act which guarantees all Canadians access to equal health care, regardless of ability to pay.

This is a prediction. The cap keeps a hold on the maximum number of these procedures that can be billed through Alberta Health and therefore keeps these procedures at low priority status in private for-profit clinics. This will incentivize people with the means to pay out of pocket to demand to be able to do so. And it will leave people without the means to pay, further and further behind. And insurance companies will begin advertising products that promise to help those people who couldn't pay for it themselves obtain better access, so long as they pay monthly premiums.

You may be wondering why the UCP would want to see two-tiered medicine in Alberta. Apart from the support the UCP may be receiving from the insurance industry and for-profit health care interests, there is an historical component that contributes to the anti-medicare ideology.

The National Citizens Coalition was founded in 1967 by an insurance agent named Colin Brown. Brown was extremely opposed to the Canada Health Act, which was very new at the time. Obviously, universal health care impinged upon his industry's profitability. People no longer had to buy insurance to pay for any medical care they needed.

The NCC also opposed the Candian Wheat Board, unions, the mandatory long-form census, Liberals, restrictions on third-party election spending, and a number of other things.

In 1997, Stephen Harper resigned as a Member of Parliament for the Reform Party to become Vice-President of the NCC. He became president the following year and remained in that role until 2002, when he took over leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party. These grievances of the NCC clearly aligned with, or helped shape, Harper's political direction.

As PM, Stephen Harper sold the Canadian Wheat Board, discontinued the mandatory long-form census, changed election financing laws, and allowed the provinces great latitude in how the Canada Health Act was administered. This resulted in increased access to for-profit entities in the systems across the country.

Yes, Jason Kenney is not Stephen Harper. But he was Harper's protege. He served Harper for the duration of the CPC government. He has now hired Harper to consult and guide the UCP government's management of the province.

As Prime Minister, Stephen Harper was not able to eliminate the Canada Health Act. Messing with Canadians' health care is political suicide, even in Alberta. So he ignored it, and turned a blind eye to Premiers who were so inclined, as they whittled away at the public system. But installing a system that would be lucrative to the insurance industry and to for-profit health care providers has always been the plan.

Now, behind the scenes, the wheels are in motion.

Governments in Canada have been under intense pressure from lobbyists representing the insurance industry, the for-profit health care industry, and the pharmaceutical industry, since the Canada Health Act came into being. The Canada Health Act is viewed as depriving them of the opportunity to profit from the Canadian market.

The philosophy of the Canada Health Act is that no one should profit from the suffering of others. So the two sides hold diametrically opposing views. It is only when there are governments in place which are sympathetic to the for-profit interests that changes occur in their favour. And these must be undertaken with stealth because Canadians are extremely attached to their health care.

We are seeing stealth moves by the UCP. They are framing it as helping people get surgeries they need faster. They are trying to present it as a benefit. In the long run, however, it is liable to be the wedge that breaks the Canadian Health Act.

Pissing Off Alberta's Doctors Was a Big Mistake, Mr. Kenney

There is trouble brewing in Alberta...

Let's begin with a basic primer on how health care works in Canada versus how it works in the US. In Canada, people find a family primary care doctor who they see for check-ups and if they have health issues. This primary care doctor may refer their patients to specialists or send them for tests. But all the doctors are employed by whatever province they practice medicine in. The provinces administer health care. They set the rates at which doctors can bill for their services.

In the US everyone pays for their own health care. Many people have insurance through work, where their employer pays all or a portion of their insurance. Still, many Americans do not have health insurance and are, therefore, unlikely to visit a doctor because they can't afford it.

Even those who do have health insurance often face a battle when trying to claim for health care. This may involve the patient paying lawyers when their insurance company denies coverage.

Insurance companies are in the business of making money. They like to receive premiums. They don't like to have to pay out. They will fight paying out. They will write extensive fine print to avoid paying out because of things like pre-existing conditions, or taking unnecessary risks. It sucks.

In Canada, there are no clauses about pre-existing conditions. There are no clauses about things not being covered. Everyone is entitled to health care, regardless of their ability to pay.

In my opinion, for whatever that is worth, the Canada Health Act should also cover necessary pharmaceuticals, eye care, dental care and mental health care. But that is just my opinion.

Now, Conservatives have been trying to end Canadian universal health care for a long time... They find the notion of universal healthcare horribly "socialist". By the way, the Canada Heath Act was created in 1964 by Lester Pearson's Liberal government, but not without considerable pressure, cajoling, and dinner meetings with the CCF/NDP led by Tommy Douglas.

Because back then, parties could get past partisan lines to do what was in the interest of the public.

But Conservatives have always been opposed. And never more so than now.

The new crop of conservative politicians raised up by Harper are particularly opposed to universal health care.

Here is a bit of history:

The CPC is predicated on a commitment to eliminate Canadian Universal Healthcare. Since Jason Kenney is one of Harper's acolytes, so is the UCP. 

Therefore, it is no surprise that the UCP in Alberta is doing just that. Attacks on the livelihoods of nurses, tearing up the contract with Alberta doctors, effectively cutting funding for health care. Yes, yes, they kept the budget the same. But if you have an increase in population, and increasing costs due to inflation, the budget remaining constant is actually a cut. 

Doctors have been struggling with finding ways to continue to treat their patients while they or their patients are self-isolating. The Alberta government re-instated a protocol from H1N1 which allows doctors to have virtual appointments with their patients.

The Health Minister, Tyler Shandro, tweeted that they were activated this billing code.

And doctors went looking for more information. They found the new bulletin:

The trouble is, there is no rate attached to the billing code on this bulletin and doctors were very confused and concerned about this.

Then the doctors found out that billing code 03.01AD was the same amount as it was for H1N1, $20 per call. All the other provinces have updated their epidemic virtual care rates. But not Alberta. The doctors are outraged.

With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading rapidly, the UCP announced a measure which they said will keep people out of doctor's waiting rooms while accessing health care. They have contracted with Telus to offer an app whereby people could talk to a doctor remotely.  They did not discuss this with doctors.

At first glance, this may seem like a sensible idea. Except, you don't get to talk to YOUR doctor. You get to talk to a random doctor. Possibly not even located in Alberta. This might be fine for dealing with simple issues, but if you have complex health issues it would obviously be better to deal consistently with one doctor who knows your history. 

The thing is, doctors already can contact their patients on the phone. They can bill for this, but at a much lower rate (less than half) than an in-office appointment. 

Patients who may rely on having a physician who understands their complex concerns will not be able to access that doctor unless they go into the clinic, potentially putting themselves at risk of infection. Doctors will lose visit revenue. 

You may be thinking that doctors make a lot of money, so why should I care if they lose a bit of revenue to this Telus system? Think of it this way: doctors are small business owners. They pay rent, and utilities, and they pay for staff to manage records and make appointments. So their take-home pay is significantly less than what they bill.

Recall that the UCP wants to reduce doctors' billing rates. At the same time, they are skimming off patients to this Telus system. Like any small business, if there is not enough revenue to keep the lights on and pay staff, they will close their clinics and go elsewhere. We are already short of doctors in this province and the UCP seem determined to drive more of them away.

Doctors are understandably extremely unhappy about this. There is a pandemic and doctors are needed. Based on the examples of Italy and South Korea, doctors are going to be run off their feet looking after very ill people. This is not the time to be driving them away. 

Or, so one might think. But recall, the UCP, like the CPC, is predicated on eliminating universal public health care. But they went after doctors, who are highly educated with quite decent research skills. And so this came to light:

It checks out.

And the ethics commissioner has signed off on this. The UCP respond to all this by pointing that out. But it was cleared by the ethics commissioner months before there was a pandemic or these new measures had been introduced by the government.  Of course, the ethics commissioner may be afraid to cross this government. Election commissioner, Lorne Gibson, was fired when he was investigating irregularities in the UCP's leadership race that saw Jason Kenney become leader.

Even the appearance of conflict of interest should be something the government takes seriously. However, it appears that they do not.

From the Vital Partners' website:

Matt Wolf, Jason Kenney's "Issues Manager" went on the offensive, attacking those who would criticise what appears to be a very blatant conflict of interest...

This key strategy of the UCP, to silence dissenting voices online, may not work this time. Doctors are furious. And they are not likely to let this go. More bits and pieces keep coming to light...

Stay tuned. As the COVID-19 Pandemic ramps up in Canada, Alberta's doctors are having to fight on 2 fronts at once.  I strongly suspect that Albertans, like most Canadians, are passionate about their health care. This will not go well for the UCP's reputation.