EDMONTON – The president of the Alberta Medical Association says the province should consider bringing back health premiums.
In a year-end letter to physicians, Dr. Richard Johnston says the government must ensure that the health system has stable funding.
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He says the system is hobbled by poor planning, including unpredictable funding, due in part to the Alberta government’s dependence on resource revenues.
Johnston says a sustainable, predictable source of revenue is required, whether it be a reintroduction of health premiums or some other means.
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The government cancelled health premiums in 2009, which brought in about $1 billion a year to provincial coffers, to make good on an election promise.
At the time premiums cost families about $1,056 a year and single Albertans paid half that amount.
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