Dear editor,
The drums are beating to identify seniors as a major problem related to health care funding.
Our premier has made that point recently by asking for more money because we have more old people who gobble up health care dollars. The silence from other political parties is deafening.
It is time to engage and involve citizens on the issue of seniors in health care funding. It is critical that facts used in context are the basis for discussion, not ideology or myth.
A number of studies have shown that the impact of population aging has been about one per cent of the driving factors influencing health care costs over the past 10 to 14 years. This isn’t expected to spike in the future. Major factors driving health care costs are:
• The increased cost of pharmaceutical prescriptions;
• Increased use of technology by medical practitioners;
• Inflation.
My point is this: the premier and other politicians seem to be discriminating against seniors, painting us as the villain in the health care cost debate — we aren’t.
I believe her comments are based on incomplete or inaccurate data and they create a false impression among the citizens of B.C. about senior’s role in health care costs.
Seniors and their advocates need to speak out loudly and often using facts not ideology, myth or emotion.
Cliff Boldt,
Courtenay