Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Klein predicts health budget will make successor squirm
GIMLI, Man. (CP) - Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is offering a colourful prediction about a particular health-care challenge his successor will face.
"Whoever looks at the health-care budget for . . . the province of Alberta . . . their rear-ends will pucker when they see the amount that is being spent on health care and the amount that it is escalating each and every year," Klein said at the western premiers conference in Gimli, Man.
He said the costs of delivering health care are increasing "at a phenomenal rate."
"I've tried various things, but people like the status quo. Every time we try to change something the Raging Grannies start to rage and the Friends of Medicare get bent all out of shape."
Alberta currently spends more than $10 billion a year on health care, roughly one-third of the province's total spending. A recent study by the province shows health spending at that rate will devour 60 per cent of the provincial budget by 2025.
Klein had planned to rein in those costs with a set of what he called Third Way health reforms. The proposals suggested doctors be allowed to work in both the public and private systems, and that people have the option of buying private health insurance to pay for medical costs not covered under medicare.
But his government was forced to abandon key aspects of the plan in the face of widespread public and political discontent. Critics felt the reforms opened the door to creating a private, two-tiered health-care system.
Klein is retiring by the end of the year. At the end of a news conference Tuesday, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer presented Klein with a plaque to commemorate his last western premiers meeting.
The plaque parodied the television show Survivor and featured Klein's head superimposed on the show's logo.
Photos of four prime ministers and more than 30 provincial premiers that Klein "outlasted, outwitted and outsmarted" since he took office in 1992 filled the outer edge of the plaque.
Klein predicts health budget will make successor squirm
GIMLI, Man. (CP) - Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is offering a colourful prediction about a particular health-care challenge his successor will face.
"Whoever looks at the health-care budget for . . . the province of Alberta . . . their rear-ends will pucker when they see the amount that is being spent on health care and the amount that it is escalating each and every year," Klein said at the western premiers conference in Gimli, Man.
He said the costs of delivering health care are increasing "at a phenomenal rate."
"I've tried various things, but people like the status quo. Every time we try to change something the Raging Grannies start to rage and the Friends of Medicare get bent all out of shape."
Alberta currently spends more than $10 billion a year on health care, roughly one-third of the province's total spending. A recent study by the province shows health spending at that rate will devour 60 per cent of the provincial budget by 2025.
Klein had planned to rein in those costs with a set of what he called Third Way health reforms. The proposals suggested doctors be allowed to work in both the public and private systems, and that people have the option of buying private health insurance to pay for medical costs not covered under medicare.
But his government was forced to abandon key aspects of the plan in the face of widespread public and political discontent. Critics felt the reforms opened the door to creating a private, two-tiered health-care system.
Klein is retiring by the end of the year. At the end of a news conference Tuesday, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer presented Klein with a plaque to commemorate his last western premiers meeting.
The plaque parodied the television show Survivor and featured Klein's head superimposed on the show's logo.
Photos of four prime ministers and more than 30 provincial premiers that Klein "outlasted, outwitted and outsmarted" since he took office in 1992 filled the outer edge of the plaque.
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