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    Default UCP Calls for Alberta Health Services Review

    https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ervices-review

    What you won't find in this article is that, by the definition of "cuts" the NDP and unions use, all Alberta gov union employees (including Health Services and teachers) just agreed to CUTS in pay (0% for three years backdated to end of 2017) with the recently finalized union contracts.

    Not a single mention of this anywhere in the papers. The big bad UCP was going to cut front line wages, but the NDP beat them to it, and on top of that the unions rolled over and played dead for them to help with the upcoming election.

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    Related but not related - one of my biggest pet peeves is that Alberta has 4 million people. AHS has over 9 million active AB Health care cards in circulation. This means approx 5 million people have access to our health system that shouldnt.

    In the last year, AHS was approached with a suggested solution to cut costs for fraudulent health cards, fraudulent residency etc. The start up cost was just under 50 million, with an anticipated savings of nearly 170 million (being conservative) a year. NDP shut it down because it would be an inconvenience to Albertans. The first step to resolving our over spending with AHS is to complete a comprehensive system for enrollment into our health system and maintaining it. Verify identity, legal entitlement to be in canada and proof you live in AB. Make this enrollment necessary every 3-5 years and I think we would all be shocked at how much the province can save and put towards proper resources and less wait times.

    But hey - what do i know? lol

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    AHS needed an overhaul 30 years ago.

    I do like the idea of residency verification every few years though.
    Ultracrepidarian

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    It doesn't matter unless you are ready to refuse help and let someone die based on ID. If you talk about exploits, there are plenty of anchor babies from US who wants to abuse our health system. I believe same is happening in BC but more from Chinese.

    That said, an unified Alberta ID that combined both health and driving status is probably not a bad idea.
    Last edited by Xtrema; 02-21-2019 at 10:09 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Xtrema View Post
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    If you talk about exploits, there are plenty of anchor babies from US who wants to abuse our health system. I believe same is happening in BC but more from Chinese.
    This is another pet peeve. But it's federal - so as important as i think i am - I'm not a federal gal lol.

    But 100% agree. Citizenship babies are one of the most ridiculous things. The other issue - a lot of individuals will come here, pop out the baby, get the passport and leave - but then never pay the bill for using the hospital. We see this a few times a month and at 18k as the average bill, that adds up quick too.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dannie View Post
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    Related but not related - one of my biggest pet peeves is that Alberta has 4 million people. AHS has over 9 million active AB Health care cards in circulation. This means approx 5 million people have access to our health system that shouldnt.
    You have any documentation to back up that claim? I'm not sure how any MLA would over look this. AHS is a huge money pit.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ca_Silvia13 View Post
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    You have any documentation to back up that claim? I'm not sure how any MLA would over look this. AHS is a huge money pit.
    Yup - It's been part of the auditor generals notes since around 2003-2004. The numbers obviously keep increasing, but even back then it was a significant issue.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...-alberta-great

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4155241/h...alberta-paper/

    and for good measure - an auditor general report:

    https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/90c5...2015Report.pdf

    This one is from 2004 and the numbers were bang on then:

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle22507512/

    The second link I posted was the public response to the initiative i posted above.

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    In my earlier years my Mom couldn't keep track of my health card and that combined with some sort of issue on AHS's end I have had 3 different health cards with different variations of my name on it. I wonder if all 3 of them still count towards the 'total users'?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ca_Silvia13 View Post
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    You have any documentation to back up that claim? I'm not sure how any MLA would over look this. AHS is a huge money pit.
    I won't contest this number because your AB health care number is for life even if you don't live in AB any more.

    So the framing of the question is, how many of those 9M active numbers has actually incurred a charge in the last 5 years. Or is that even a good metric since I don't think I have visited doctors much between 18 and 30.

    End of the day, unless you are ready to not render help without valid ID, $200M in a $22B budget is 1%. That should be pretty low on the AHS inefficiency list on potential bad PR.

    Quote Originally Posted by HiTempguy1 View Post
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    https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ervices-review

    What you won't find in this article is that, by the definition of "cuts" the NDP and unions use, all Alberta gov union employees (including Health Services and teachers) just agreed to CUTS in pay (0% for three years backdated to end of 2017) with the recently finalized union contracts.

    Not a single mention of this anywhere in the papers. The big bad UCP was going to cut front line wages, but the NDP beat them to it, and on top of that the unions rolled over and played dead for them to help with the upcoming election.
    Back to this.

    UCP and Kenney are weak in this sector. But I don't disagree what he's saying. Especially NDP has been on a hiring spree with AHS the last 2 years to commit a number of infrastructure improvement projects. And to me, a few those those are definitely waste/pork projects.

    Now my question is, AHS only get $15B out of $22B, where the hell the other $7B goes? I thought we consolidated everything into AHS?

    Regardless, the frontline is mostly already decided against UCP. I don't think Kenney will make much headway here.
    Last edited by Xtrema; 02-21-2019 at 10:50 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ca_Silvia13 View Post
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    You have any documentation to back up that claim? I'm not sure how any MLA would over look this. AHS is a huge money pit.
    If you read between the lines, especially that post right before yours, it sounds like Dannie is in some sort of management position/non-front line position with AHS in some capacity.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HiTempguy1 View Post
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    If you read between the lines, especially that post right before yours, it sounds like Dannie is in some sort of management position/non-front line position with AHS in some capacity.
    Doesn't Dannie own one or more AB Registries?

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    I know an AHS employee (higher up) that is looking forward to the UPC coming in. He said with NDP, they ask him to make cuts and he comes up with unneeded staff and they reply "now hold on, when we say cuts we mean you can't let anyone go. Cut down on your stationary..." He said over the last few years, there have been some communities that have needed extra health care workers, so the NDP will approve that, but other communities that require a decrease in service, they won't lay off so they have people just sitting around not being utilized. They won't even offer transfers many times. He said they have wasted so much just by wanting to make sure they didn't lay off any health care workers.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tik-Tok View Post
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    Doesn't Dannie own one or more AB Registries?

    No, she’s a professional world traveller

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tik-Tok View Post
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    Doesn't Dannie own one or more AB Registries?
    Quote Originally Posted by Sorath View Post
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    No, she’s a professional world traveller
    Not relating to dannie, kinda reminds me of hearing the term some Beyond ballers gf self claiming to be a professional gf.

    I thought dannie was professionally retired.

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    Do you think that the UCP should implement a period of austerity budgets to improve alberta for the long run, or would that be too drastic?

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    Quote Originally Posted by nzwasp View Post
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    Do you think that the UCP should implement a period of austerity budgets to improve alberta for the long run, or would that be too drastic?
    I don't know who this is aimed at, but I advocate for whatever puts Alberta at approximately 0 debt. We have over $50bil in debt, even running surpluses of $2bil per year would take 25 years to pay that down.

    So yes, if austerity is necessary, I completely think it acceptable.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HiTempguy1 View Post
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    https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ervices-review

    What you won't find in this article is that, by the definition of "cuts" the NDP and unions use, all Alberta gov union employees (including Health Services and teachers) just agreed to CUTS in pay (0% for three years backdated to end of 2017) with the recently finalized union contracts.

    Not a single mention of this anywhere in the papers. The big bad UCP was going to cut front line wages, but the NDP beat them to it, and on top of that the unions rolled over and played dead for them to help with the upcoming election.
    I haven't had a wage increase since we were absorbed into AHS in 2010. Actually I think thats incorrect, I believe I had a 1.25% in there in one year.
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    Quote Originally Posted by nzwasp View Post
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    Do you think that the UCP should implement a period of austerity budgets to improve alberta for the long run, or would that be too drastic?
    I know you weren't here went Ralph Klein went union busting and blew up an hospital in Calgary.

    Some say while the balanced budget was cool and all, the hole we are in now was rooted in austerity measure from the 90s. Klein should have invested back into infrastructure instead of giving out Ralph bucks so everything just wasted it on computer and beer.

    Now I would say it's a bit of both. austerity is good if you know what to cut and how to improve utilization. The whole notion of not spending is almost as bad as spending too much. I think that's where Kenny's message is at. Instead of increase spending, he is looking for efficiencies to combat growth. Message is on point, devil would be in the details.

    Quote Originally Posted by blownz View Post
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    I know an AHS employee (higher up) that is looking forward to the UPC coming in. He said with NDP, they ask him to make cuts and he comes up with unneeded staff and they reply "now hold on, when we say cuts we mean you can't let anyone go. Cut down on your stationary..." He said over the last few years, there have been some communities that have needed extra health care workers, so the NDP will approve that, but other communities that require a decrease in service, they won't lay off so they have people just sitting around not being utilized. They won't even offer transfers many times. He said they have wasted so much just by wanting to make sure they didn't lay off any health care workers.
    I have heard similar stories. So basically it's NDP trying to increase voter base. Nobody is going to go against their pay check and voting UCP may just do that.
    Last edited by Xtrema; 02-21-2019 at 01:49 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by blownz View Post
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    I know an AHS employee (higher up) that is looking forward to the UPC coming in. He said with NDP, they ask him to make cuts and he comes up with unneeded staff and they reply "now hold on, when we say cuts we mean you can't let anyone go. Cut down on your stationary..." He said over the last few years, there have been some communities that have needed extra health care workers, so the NDP will approve that, but other communities that require a decrease in service, they won't lay off so they have people just sitting around not being utilized. They won't even offer transfers many times. He said they have wasted so much just by wanting to make sure they didn't lay off any health care workers.
    Exactly what happened in BC during the 90s NDP years. Govt. people were not to be touched, layoffs were the spawn of evil capitalists pigs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Xtrema View Post
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    Now my question is, AHS only get $15B out of $22B, where the hell the other $7B goes? I thought we consolidated everything into AHS?
    I don't think Covenant health is rolled into AHS.

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