Advocates are urging the federal government to increase health care funding and impose more conditions on what the provinces can do with that money.
Friends of Medicare director Chris Galloway says Ottawa shouldn’t give a blank cheque that could allow provinces like Alberta to dismantle the public system.
Galloway and more than 100 other people gathered outside a meeting of provincial and territorial premiers in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
They were protesting Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plans to allow some physicians to offer privately paid surgical procedures beginning this fall.
The Alberta government is inviting surgeons to apply this summer to be able to charge patients for elective procedures like hip and knee replacements outside their publicly funded practice.
Alberta officials say the status quo isn’t working as too many Albertans are sitting in the queue too long to get surgery.
Galloway says universal public health care is one of the ways Canada can set itself apart from the U.S. and he’s worried about losing that distinction.
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The protesters were rallying in front of a hotel in overcast Charlottetown where all 13 premiers are discussing health care and other issues of national interest.
Canadian Health Coalition chair Jason MacLean says Prime Minister Mark Carney should prioritize health care as a crucial part of nation building.
“The spending in health care hasn’t been keeping up with inflation year after year after year,” MacLean said.
“Therefore, provinces or premiers are coming to the decision, ‘well, maybe we can do better in the private sector.’ That’s not true.”
Premier Danielle Smith did not speak to reporters before heading into the meeting.
Other premiers said they would be asking for increased support from the Carney government for health care costs.
Carney is scheduled to meet with the premiers on Thursday.
— With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press
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