International Universal Health Coverage Day
“Everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care.”
Universal Health Coverage advocates “raise their voices to share the stories of the millions of people still waiting for health coverage, champion what we have achieved so far, and call on leaders to make bigger and smarter investments in health” (United Nations, n.d.).
Despite Canada’s universal health care system many essential healthcare services are not covered. Canadians, particularly those without workplace health benefits are still burdened with the costs of prescription medications, dental care, physiotherapy, ambulance services, and prescription eyeglasses (Government of Canada, n.d.). Twenty-one per cent of Canadians are without insurance coverage for prescription medications and nine per cent of those Canadians report having delayed filling prescriptions and skipping doses because of affordability (Statistics Canada, 2022).
Social Workers are concerned that the Alberta government appears to be encouraging the growth of private health care - despite the failure of Dynalife, a privately owned company, to deliver lab services in Alberta (Dryden, 2023). The recent announcement to disaggregate Alberta Health Services has raised concerns from health experts that this opens the door to increased privatization of healthcare in Alberta. Front line health professionals and health economists are worried that dismantling Alberta Health Services will harm patient care (Goldman, 2023; Lee, 2023).
Social Workers know that increasing access to the full range of health services is essential to creating good health outcomes for all citizens. We understand how limited health coverage severely impacts quality of life. We applaud the December 11 federal government announcement to expand the Canada Dental Plan to focus on families with children and senior citizens who have annual incomes of less than $90,000 and who do not have access to insurance benefits (Pretty, 2023; Government of Canada, 2023). We also support the introduction of a single-payer universal drug plan for all Canadians (Major, 2023; Mallees, 2023).
We call on our Provincial government to further invest in publicly accessible health services. We know that access to essential health support will provide the critical conditions needed to improve the social determinants of health in particular for those most marginalized.
We call on all social workers to take action. Talk to your MLAs about greatly increasing investments in publicly delivered, accessible health care services.
Contact your Alberta MLA and Cabinet Ministers:
Contact your Federal MP and Cabinet Ministers:
References:
United Nations. (n.d.). International Universal Health Coverage Day. United Nations.
Government of Canada. (n.d.). Health care in Canada: Learn about other types of health insurance. Government of Canada.
Statistics Canada (2022). Skipping doses and delaying filling: For many, prescription medications come at a cost. Government of Canada.
Dryden, J. (2023). Dynalife ownership to transfer all staff, operations, physical labs to Alberta Precision Labs. CBC News.
Goldman, B. (2023). Dismantling Alberta Health Care | White Coat Black Art with Dr. Brian Goldman. CBC Listen.
Lee, J. (2023). Nurses, doctors call on Alberta government to back down from health-care restructuring. CBC News.
Pretty, A. (2023). Expanded Federal Dental Coverage Great News for Albertans. Friends of Medicare.
Government of Canada, 2023. Canadian Dental Care Plan. Government of Canada.
Major, D. (2023). New health minister says pharmacare legislation is coming this fall CBC News.
Al Mallees, N. (2023). Pharmacare would cost governments billions more per year but save economy money: PBO. CBC News.
Government of Canada. (2023). Social determinants of health and health inequalities. Government of Canada.
Written by Executive Director, Harold Pliszka, and Board President, Joan Farkas.