I am wondering if I have been like Rip Van Winkle and have slept through the end of last week. I must have missed the weekly nail that our govenment under Ed Stelmach has been pounding into the coffin of our Public Health Care System.
The week before, there was the announcement that the reading of the PAP Smears will be taken out of the public facilities in Red Deer and Lethbridge and moved to private facilities in Calgary and Edmonton.
Before that, there was word that there is a freeze on the hiring of nursing staff.
Before that the charts came out telling of the cost of our medicines for different income ranges for seniors.
After $4,000 per month, the rates don’t change. At $1,000 per month income, folks will not be charged for medications. At $1001 per month income, we will have to pay a monthly premium (if we can afford it) and then a co-payment for each prescription.
Before that, there was an article by the Minister for Seniors, Mary Anne Jablonski that she was negotiating with a private company to provide long term care at $100 per day (as opposed to the $47 per day in our present long term publicly owned care facilities).
Seems to me that our present government under Stelmach is aiming at forcing us to live with our children.
I shudder to think of one of them having to struggle with a lift to get me in and out of a bed, or a chair. Or, of one of them having to struggle with the nursing care that some seniors need.
We do not know which of us that will be, for some folk are lucky to be able to stay at home until we die, but many are not able to have this luxury.
Please let your local MLA know how you are thinking about the current strategies being announced week by week.
Alice L. Williamson
Red Deer