BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, October, 2014

Working to protect and improve public health care
for all Canadians

As a federal election looms, seniors mobilize to strengthen Medicare

By JoAnn Lauber

JoAnn Lauber is a key organizer in the campaign by seniors’ groups to defend public health care and “Keep the Heart in Medicare.”

As the federal government begins to unveil its “treats” and promises prior to the 2015 election, citizens of Canada look on with dismay as no mention is made of solid improvements to our public health care system.

There is no mention of plans to protect and reform Medicare, no mention of a possible national pharmaceutical plan that would save us billions of dollars every year, no mention of a national seniors health care strategy on the horizon.

It is rumored that a budgetary surplus, even tax breaks, will likely be announced just before the writ is dropped.

According to Adrienne Silnicki, Executive Director of the Canadian Health Coalition, “A federal surplus is costing us Medicare.”

Speaking to the convention of the National Pensioners Federation in Saskatoon on September 18, 2014, Silnicki said, “The changes to the Canada Health Transfer (dictated by the Conservative Government in December 2011) will mean a loss of $36 billion to health care over the next 10 years and growing disparity in health care delivery between provinces.” By 2024, every province will lose billions in health care funding.

“For decades,” Silnicki stated, “Canadians have been witnessing the federal abdication from public health care.“

Instead of fulfilling its rightful role of leader in public health care, the Conservative government is reducing funding and withdrawing from its leadership responsibilities.

These include coordinating health care standards and innovations, implementing best practices and demanding accountability for health care funds transferred to provinces.

Canadians expect more.

Trusted nation-wide surveys continue to show that the main concern for aging citizens, indeed, for all Canadian citizens, is the stability and security of Medicare.

Yet no new health care agreement has been forged between the federal and provincial governments to ensure that Medicare is there for us and for generations to come.

To press Ottawa to pay attention to the health of our health care system, groups of constituents, since the beginning of the year, have made visits to 33 of BC’s 36 Members of Parliament.

Representing COSCO and its affiliates, including BC FORUM, the National Association of Federal Retirees, the BC Retired Teachers Association, and others, we seniors asked our elected officials to do everything possible at the national level to protect and enhance public health care delivery.

But we must do more.

Now, with the federal election almost upon us, we want our political parties to embed plans in their political platforms which would protect, strengthen and expand public Medicare.

And we, personally, can each do something to “Keep the Heart in Medicare”:

• Take a moment to make your views known by answering a short “Save Medicare” Survey. It can be found on the website home pages of the BCRTA (bcrta.ca) or FORUM (bcforum.ca) or COSCO (coscobc.ca). The survey can be filled in on-line.

• Get informed. The “Advocate’s Kit” on the BCRTA website home page has lots of pertinent, accessible information assembled from a variety of sources.

• Talk to your family, friends, and neighbours about the need to protect Medicare and to vote in the 2015 election.

• Meet or write your local MPs. Let them know that Medicare will be in our minds when we vote in 2015. (National Medicare Week is November 23 to 29th.)

• Join the campaign at healthcoalition.ca Each one of us, individually voicing our concerns, can make a difference.

Olivia Chow, reflecting on the significant role of citizens, says: “We (politicians) are just the conduit. It’s people who make change.”