Alberta might eliminate health premiums

It's for the first time Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is talking about the possibility of eliminating health care premiums as part of his party’s next election platform.

Even though Alberta has been awash in surplus cash for years, the Progressive Conservative government has resisted the idea of dropping health premiums, which only exist in three provinces.
But now Stelmach is signaling that a policy change may be in the works for premiums, which cost $1,056 per year for families and $528 for singles.

Earlier this week Ontario's premier McGuinty announced that despite soaring government revenues, health tax is not going to be scrapped for Ontarians. (read related article here)

“The revenue is close to $1 billion,” he told The Canadian Press in a year-end interview.
“There are a number of ideas coming forward from people that are looking at developing policy positions for the campaign. But we’re far from making any kind of decisions.”

Health Minister Dave Hancock said he has been talking to government caucus members for months about how the province can eliminate or at least reduce health premiums for some people.
Hancock says he would like to see the province create incentives for people to lead healthy lifestyles. "Whether we collect it as a premium or we collect it as tax, we should give people credit for the things that they do to remain healthy," he said Wednesday in an interview.

The message to Albertans would be: "We can take health-care premiums off, but you have to do something for it."

“That’s what I’m promoting, that we take a look at how you can earn your premium back by doing some pre-screening tests, by engaging in health activity, those sort of things.”

The group Friends of Medicare was delighted to hear that the government appears to have had a change of heart over health premiums, which are also charged in Ontario and British Columbia.

“This is the time to get rid of these premiums. We’ve never been wealthier,” said Suzanne Marshall, executive director of the Edmonton-based lobby group.

Edmonton Sun