Any way you cut it, health care costs

Edmonton Sun, Canada
Wed, April 15, 2009
Any way you cut it, health care costs
By MINDELLE JACOBS

You can have Cadillac health care. You want lots of doctors, no
waiting lists and coverage for virtually all your medical and
psychological needs? Sure.

But there's a price to pay. I know, you're already pinching pennies
because your nest eggs have been decimated and you're wondering how
you're going to put the kids through college.

Still, if you want unlimited health care, hand over half your
paycheque to the government.

And stop complaining. Did you think you could have low taxes and
broad-based, state-paid services?

Chiropractic procedures are no longer covered in Alberta. And the
province is no longer paying for gender reassignment surgery.

The transsexual community has vowed to take the issue to the Alberta
Human Rights and Citizenship Commission today on the grounds that
sex-change surgery is medically necessary.

Is the province dumping on transsexuals because it figures, probably
correctly, that Albertans won't make much of a fuss over delisting
operations for a tiny minority of people who feel trapped in the wrong
bodies?

Or does sexuality have nothing to do with it and is Health Minister
Ron Liepert simply trying to make difficult decisions on how to fund
health care in the face of a $4.7-billion deficit?

I am not opposed to state coverage of sex-change surgery because it
involves so few people.

As transsexual Michelle Drinkell pointed out on Monday, the $700,000 a
year the province hopes to save by delisting the procedure is a
"teardrop in the ocean" of the $13-billion health budget.

On the other hand, the decision over whether to cover medical services
shouldn't be based on numbers, emotion and complaints to human rights
commissions but on what we consider medically necessary.

That's the wider public policy discussion Albertans need to have.

Experts will tell you it can be incredibly psychologically damaging
for transsexuals who can't afford sex-change surgery.

BAD TEETH

But there are lots of people with bad teeth who grow up to be
depressed, timid, emotionally beaten-down individuals because they
can't afford dental work.

Others have facial disfigurations that cause them no end of teasing,
embarrassment and loss of self-confidence, yet the government won't
cover certain operations.

And what about diabetic supplies, optical services and prescription drugs?

Perhaps there should be a whole parade of Albertans marching to the
human rights commission.

Then again, is the human rights commission the right body to determine
what should be covered under the medicare umbrella?

It is properly the function of government to make these arduous decisions.

The trouble is, no one knows Liepert's plan.

It's highly unlikely, however, that he's intent on imposing "an
American two-tier-style health system," as the fearmongering Friends
of Medicare squawked yesterday.

Even the Alberta Tories realize that Canadians want to preserve our
universal access system, even as we experiment with reforms.

Because of rising health-care spending, Alberta could be facing "a
more strained fiscal future," warns a new University of Calgary report
on the sustainability of the province's medicare system.

Alberta can either control expenditures (angry patients), raise taxes
(angry voters) or create a health endowment fund to pay for future
medicare costs (expensive), the report says.

Pick your poison, folks.

MINDY.JACOBS@SUNMEDIA.CA
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http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2009/04/15/9116231-sun.html