Heath care to the highest bidder

The Alberta government wants to turn our public health services into a for-profit disaster.

They call it “efficiency,” but the publicly delivered system we rely on is being dismantled and sold off to corporations that prioritize profits over patient care.

AUPE’s Anti-Privatization Committee recently called on the government to bring hospital laundry services back in-house, instead of leaving it in the hands of K-Bro, a company that does not care about quality. Instead of listening to front-line workers, the government created Bill 55, which is even worse.

“Instead of learning their lesson from disaster after disaster, the government continues down the dangerous path of dismantling our public health care system,” says AUPE Vice-President Curtis Jackson, who chairs the Anti-Privatization Committee. “We are very quickly reaching a tipping point that will be impossible to recover from. We need to fight to protect the public health care we rely on.”

Bill 55, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, takes a dangerous leap towards a privatized, American-style health care system. With it, the government is preparing to sell off our hospitals to the highest bidder.

Bill 55 allows the government to appoint anyone who is not a provincial health agency or provincial health corporation to operate Alberta’s hospitals. This means that more political friends and donors could be gifted contracts to deliver lower quality health services at higher costs. We’ve seen it before. 

“In the hands of the wealthy elite, hospitals and health care centres will refocus on generating profits instead of caring for Albertans,” says Jackson.

The government claims they will hold operators accountable, but AUPE members have heard that one before. We know what will happen. For-profit operators can withhold essential services so they can pocket public dollars.

Albertans have invested billions of dollars into our world class health care system. But now the government to hand over our publicly funded and built hospitals to companies that will then charge us to use them? That is a betrayal of all Albertans.

AUPE members working for Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health know what they’re talking about. All publicly operated hospital laundry services were privatized in 2021, followed soon after by retail food services in 2022. We've seen the disaster this privatization has caused. The private laundry company, K-Bro, routinely sends unclean linens back to our hospitals for use. At the same time, food costs have increased while quantity and quality have decreased. 

The government also attempted to privatize laboratory services. This was yet another disastrous, failed experiment. DynaLIFE was not capable of delivering critical services because they prioritized profits. Instead of the savings the government promised, Albertans paid $100 million to bring lab services back into the public sector where they belong. 

Surgeries are still auctioned off to private operators, but we’ve seen clear reports that private surgeries are being performed at a much higher cost to Albertans.

“Again and again, we are seeing this government’s privatization of essential public health care services have disastrous impacts,” says Jackson. “Quality plummets, costs skyrocket, Albertans suffer, and yet the government barrels forward. It’s clear that they are driven by ideology and prioritizing friends and donors over Albertans.”

AUPE members are committed to fighting for high quality, public health care that Albertans can rely on. Learn more about AUPE’s Anti-Privatization Committee.