Friends of Medicare speak out against possible return of healthcare premiums
Posted Feb 19, 2015 10:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As the province starts to make some of its strategies to help with the budget shortfall coming this spring, it looks increasingly like healthcare premiums will be on the list.
The Ed Stelmach government did away with the practice in 2009.
Many Albertans are concerned with its possible return, saying it will bring more hardship than help.
Sandra Azocar, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare, doubts it will make much of a difference.
“The amount of money that we collected from healthcare premiums, compared to what it costs us to get the money that we were collecting. It’s some what, you know, it’s certainly not gonna cut a huge hole into the deficit that we have,” she said.
She says it would end up hurting people living pay cheque to pay cheque.
Multiple sources say the new premium will be calculated as a percentage of a person’s taxable income, instead of a flat rate.
Azocar says she’d rather just see the province save the trouble and go right to a progressive income tax system.
