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| Welcome! | |
| Welcome to the first edition of our Friends of Medicare e-newsletter! The BC
Health Coalition is proud to bring you this new information and action resource to keep you informed
and up-to-date on the work of the Coalition and health care issues in B.C. Act now to protect and enhance public health care by joining our Friends of Medicare Campaign and adding your voice to the chorus of British Columbians who actively support publicly funded, publicly delivered and publicly accountable health care for all. The BCHC has heard from countless British Columbians who have said we need positive, public solutions to address challenges in our health care system, and they are concerned their voices aren't being heard by a government intent on for-profit private schemes for health care. We are helping organize communities around the province to ensure that governments listen and not allow for-profit private health care businesses to undermine our universal health care system. We can afford public health care and we can afford to act on positive public solutions that will expand and strengthen Medicare. |
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| "Conversation on Health": British Columbians demand public solutions while government plans more for-profit, private schemes | |
 Participants
from 14 of the16 public forums held across the province during the past six months joined with the
BC Health Coalition to deliver a clear message to the provincial government during its final
"Conversation on Health" regional forum in Vancouver July 7th. Citizens and health care workers who participated in the Conversation on Health overwhelmingly want better public health care and support for proven innovations and solutions within the public health care system. "We're concerned that the provincial government is on the road to increasing for-profit, private health care, no matter what people have been saying through the government's own consultation process," says BCHC co-chair Joyce Jones. "We're concerned that the Conversation may have been an elaborate $10 million exercise in smoke and mirrors, designed to create the impression that the government is consulting British Columbians on the changes we want to the health care system. But it appears that the government has already made up its mind on the direction it would take health care in B.C." Participating in a news conference, numerous radio and television interviews and a rally, Conversation on Health participants from across the province spoke about their experiences in the process, including their perceptions and the observations shared about health care challenges in their own communities. Jean Leahy with Save Our Northern Seniors said, "We are very concerned that no recommendations from the Conversation process will be taken to the government, and that our input around issues related to home support and long-term care beds for seniors in Fort St. John and area will be ignored." Jones adds: "With the Conversation coming to an end, we have grave concerns that the focus of the government has not been to find ways to deliver better public health care, but instead to find ways to justify user fees and more for-profit health care delivery." The BC Health Coalition is a broad-based network of organizations and individuals who support public health care and has been actively engaging individuals and organizations across the province in discussions about proven public innovations and solutions since the Conversation on Health began in January. Take a moment and visit our take action to support and expand public health care!! For more information on Positive Public Solutions and other resources visit our resources page Submissions are still being accepted to the Conversation on Health until the end of September 2007. Click here to join the Conversation |
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| Health Coalition Celebrates BC Seniors' Week with Home Support Action Blitz | |
From June 3-9, the BCHC celebrated BC Seniors Week by coordinating actions by members' and regional coalitions through our new website's easy-to-use Home Support "Take Action" page. Seniors from across the province took effective, forceful action, sending electronic letters to the Premier and other MLAs with health-related portfolios, participating in a coordinated "letter to the editor" action, and presenting a draft municipal resolution on home support to municipal councils throughout BC. To date, 28 municipalities have adopted the resolution and/or sent a letter to the Premier as a result of our campaign. You can help! Download the resolution and view the list of BC municipal councils to find out how to contact your own municipal council and express your support for this resolution. It is not too late to act! Send an e-mail to Premier Campbell now and tell him that home support and seniors' care should be a priority all year round. |
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| Health Care Activists will bring message to Canadian Medical Association AGM | |
This year's Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Medical Association will be held in Vancouver, August 19 - 22nd. Dr. Brian Day will assume the CMA Presidency at this meeting, and is expected to use this position as a platform to continue pushing private, for-profit initiatives (such as his own private surgical clinic) as a means to address challenges within the BC health care system. The BC Health Coalition will be joining with the Canadian Doctors for Medicare and many of our coalition partners to draw attention to Dr. Day's plans. Stay tuned for further information on related events! In the meantime, visit our website's private clinic Take Action page to send an e-mail to BC Health Minister George Abbott, and demand that he act now to prohibit the charging of user-fees and extra billing by any for-profit health care provider for insured medical services. |
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| BC Health Coalition • 411 Dunsmuir Street Vancouver,
BC V6B 1X4 P: 604-681-7945 • F: 604-681-7947 • Email: info@bchealthcoalition.ca |
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