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The End of Health Care Premiums is in sight… and it can’t come soon enough |
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Speaking of taxes, will 2008 be the year that Albertans will finally see the end of health care premiums?
It was heartening to see all of the political parties calling for the end to this regressive lump sum tax during the recent provincial election campaign. It would be hard to design a tax that is more damaging to modest income working households than health care premiums are. Everybody pays the same amount whether your income is $40,000 a year or $400,000 a year. This basic unfairness is the reason many groups including the ESPC have been urging they be scrapped. Getting rid of health care premiums will add $1,056 a year to the financial bottom lines of families, and $528 for singles.
Unlike the other parties - who would have scrapped health care premiums immediately - the Conservatives only promised to phase them out over four years. With high energy prices continuing to add billions to provincial coffers, here’s hoping that the newly elected Conservative government does us all a favour and gets rid of them entirely in their first budget.
- John K
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Thursday, 17 May 2012 
The ESPC is a member of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH). ECOHH sent out a three question survey related to housing security to each political party competing in the 2012 Alberta election. So far, the Progressive Conservatives (PC), the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Alberta Party responded to ECOHH's questions. Below are their respective answers.
