Quick Links Visit our website Who we are How we work What we do Staff News Farewell Leslie! It is with great sadness that all of us here in the BC Health Coalition bid farewell to our Medicare campaigner Leslie Dickout. Over the last three years Leslie has played a vital role developing our Friends of Medicare campaign and leaves us with a strong network of supporters across the province. She is now working as a Campaign Strategist for Communicopia, a Vancouver-based new media firm. Welcome Adam! The BCHC is pleased welcome Adam Lynes-Ford as our new Medicare campaigner. Adam has a background in community health, popular education, online organizing and climate justice. He is excited about working with Health Coalition members and supporters and looks forward to advancing public health care in B.C. Find Adam online. Common Cause Cancel the Cuts.org   Community-Based Health Organizations (CBHO's) that provide integral and life saving services for many people who are unable to access traditional government health services are facing funding cuts that will have devastating effects on a large proportion of BC's underserved and marginalized populations that CBHO's serve. Join YouthCO AIDS Society, AIDS Vancouver, and Vancouver Native Health and call on the Premier to reinstate government funding to 2008/2009 levels. Click here to take action and learn more... DebtSentence.ca   BC provides students with the least financial aid in Canada and tuition fees are above the national average. At a time when personal debt threatens the fundamentals of our economy it's time to end the education debt sentence in BC. Join the Canadian Federation of Students in calling on the BC government to roll back tuition fees to 2001 levels, establish a grants program for BC student and eliminate interest on BC student loans. Click here to take action and learn more...   Resources   Ombudsperson's report on Seniors Care in British Columbia is out   The Office of the Ombudsperson has released a report on the first part of its ongoing systemic investigation on seniors' care that was launched in response to a growing number of complaints and increasing public concerns about the poor care received by seniors and people with disabilities living in residential care facilities in BC. Click here to download the report...   National Medicare Week Rally video now up   Last November hundreds of public health care supporters gathered on the steps of the Legislature in Victoria during National Medicare Week and to demand that the BC Government stop breaking its promises to protect public health care and promote public positive solutions to our health care challenges. A video of the event is now up on our YouTube channel. Click here to view...	February 2010   Health Coalition urges provincial government to implement all Ombudsperson's recommendations on seniors' care The BC Health Coalition is calling on the provincial government to immediately implement all recommendations regarding rights for seniors in residential care made by provincial Ombudsperson Kim Carter in her recent report on seniors' care. The report is the first part of an ongoing systemic investigation in response to a growing number of complaints and increasing concern about seniors' care in B.C. The report identifies three interrelated areas where straightforward changes would improve the quality of life for residents in care facilities: 1) Set out a clear commitment to care and residents rights; 2) Provide access to useful, consistent and comparable information on residential care; and 3) Provide support for family councils. To-date the provincial government has only agreed to implement four of the report's ten recommendations. While this is a positive step, the BCHC is concerned the government will be unable to meet the resident and family needs identified in the report, if it fails to fully implement all the recommendations in all three areas. Take Action! Click here to send a letter to Premier Campbell and demand he improve the lives of seniors and people with disabilities. Get involved! Click here to chat with others across the province about the government's response to the Ombudsperson's report. Click here to download the BCHC's letter to Premier Campbell. Round One Victory! Courts allow BC Health Coalition to participate in private clinics lawsuit. Audit of private, for-profit Cambie Clinic to proceed The BC Health Coalition has won intervener status in the BC Supreme Court case launched by a consortium of private for-profit clinics to challenge the province's medicare laws. This is an important victory, but the work has just begun. The for-profit clinics recently appealed the court's ruling to allow a provincial audit of one of Dr. Day's clinics. In the mean time, the conservative Canadian Constitution Foundation has applied for intervener status in support of the for-profit clinics. This lawsuit is driven by private, for-profit clinic owners who want private health insurance companies' to have access to Canadian health care and to open B.C. to unequal, two-tier US-style private health insurance that most of us can't afford. The provincial government has also allowed private, for-profit clinics to grow and unprecedented legal threat demands that public health care advocates have a voice in the courts. The BCHC has established a legal defence fund to support this important fight. With help from individual's like you we will be able to defend Medicare for all and protect British Columbians from costly, two-tier health care. Click here to donate to our Medicare Legal Defense Fund. Click here to send a message to Health Minister Kevin Falcon calling for protection of British Columbians' public health care from the private clinics' legal challenge and the U.S. health insurance industry!   Health Coalition continues partnership with Check Your Head to present a Public Health Care Workshop for youth. Invite them to your community!   For the past three years the great folks at Check Your Head have been presenting workshops on our Public Health care system to youth (ages 15-20) all over BC. Check Your Head is back on the road from March 1 - May 31 and is available to come to any community in BC. There are many questions about what's best for Canada's health care system, yet there is little youth-accessible information and opportunities for youth-based dialogue on this issue. The workshop provides a space for much-needed youth-to-youth education on systems of health care. Through facilitated discussions and interactive activities, youth participants explore the values behind universal care, encounter the realities of for-profit health care, and discuss the history of our healthcare system. Check Your Head is a youth-driven non-profit society. Their youth facilitators offer well-researched, interactive, and easy to understand workshops to elementary and high school aged youth on many local and global issues. Since its inception, Check Your Head has delivered over 1,800 workshops and reached over 50,000 youth in BC and across Canada. If you know any youth groups or high schools that would be interested in learning more about Canada's Health care system please contact Anna Hilliar at Check Your Head for more information: 604.685.6631 or admin@checkyourhead.org Visit www.checkyourhead.org to book a workshop! return to top
BC Health Coalition • 411 Dunsmuir Street Vancouver, BC V6B 1X4 P: 604-681-7945 • F: 604-681-7947 • Email: info@bchealthcoalition.ca