Calgary Herald:
Today's budget also eliminates "gender reassignment" surgery, meaning it will no longer pay for Albertans to have sex change operations, saving the system about $700,000 a year.
The government hasn't simply reduced the number of procedures that they pay for, or the proportion that they will pay. No, in this case, they have axed it outright. This puts a lot of people into really awkward straights. Not all transsexuals have the kind of professional income that would allow them to pay that cost out of their own pocket - in fact relatively few do.
Similarly, I have to wonder at the long term costs of yanking funding for chiropractic care. Who is going to be most affected by this? Seniors, who are not only on fixed incomes, but for whom chiropractic care is often a vital relief from chronic back problems.
Then we find Liepert bragging about this:
The province's superboard received a modest increase in funding of about $550 million, bringing its budget to $7.7 billion.
"We are maintaining our spending from last year and are also able to give Alberta Health Services an increase," said Health Minister Ron Liepert, in a statement.
Think about this, while cutting $700,000 (less than 1% of the Health "Superboard" budget), the Alberta government brags about adding funding. Typical Conservative policy - when times get tough, attack the people who can do the least about it.
6 comments:
This will change. We will be organizing a petition and protest this summer.
My partner told me about this earlier. I'm so sorry to hear that Alberta is sliding backwards. She also told me that they figure there are from 10 to 20 Albertans a year who have SRS, which means that the $700,000 figure is bogus.
Hello. I recently saw you posting on DTF-JayG.blogspot.com and followd you here. Good work! You should go into the blogspot tools and add a "follow" feature for your readers, it gives them automatic updates on your new articles.
Best wishes and keep up the fight! ;)
You often read the public opinion that "the majority" should not pay for theese. So I think it was just a demagogic step. After all not paying for surgery turns out to be more expensive in the long run. Depressions, suicide survivers and such all costs money.
BHD:
I wish it were so easily explained as you suggest.
Sadly, I think this is more likely a 'dog whistle' to the fundies - a signal from the Stelmach Con$ that "Alberta is fundie-friendly" - mostly because that's the conservative voter base out here.
Clearly, Steady Eddie is pandering to the extreme reigh wing bigots in his caucus by this attack on the most vulnerable segment of society.
I wonder if he is prepared to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter to defend this vicious policy against human rights complaints or court Charter challenges?
Will the Alberta public speak up against this outrageous discrimination the way it did when Klein's goons tried to take away the sterilization victims right to sue the government? Or does Alberta still think equality is a popularity contest?
This province is known as ALABAMA NORTH for good reason.
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