Read on Twitter
Thread: I work in a rural ER, and it's not uncommon for me to provide care to homeless or transient patients. These patients often do not have AB health coverage, and cannot obtain it due to having no fixed address and ongoing mental health/addictions issues.
In the past, I could treat these patients knowing that Alberta Health had my back. We had a "good faith" claims process, where to province acknowledged that all humans deserve health care and should not be turned away.
As of April 1, this process has been eliminated. Alberta Health and the UCP state that this is to match other provinces and to save money. I did the math. The $2.1 million this is meant to save represents 0.0098% of the total healthcare budget. Think about that.
This is the reality of healthcare in Alberta - our government is destroying our amazing full service system in a race to the bottom. Please contact your MLA and ask them to listen to docs, to protect their constituents, and reverse the changes.
The UCP has decided that I either must turn these patients away (which I will not do) or work for free. All to save 0.0098% of the healthcare budget. Don't believe me? See this bulletin below. This is expected to save 2.1 million. The total budget is 21.4 billion.
