Will these health care suggestions be popular??

Barbara Kaminsky is the Chairperson of the BC Healthy Living Alliance ... as well as being the CEO of the BC and Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society. I am going to start from the premise that she is well qualified to be in both of these positions, and therefore comments that she makes should be seriously considered.

That's why I found an article she had in the Vancouver Sun on Monday January 17^th of interest – the story was entitled, “Leadership is the key to decrease prevention.”

In this story she started of with a comment that pretty much all of us would agree on, that is that British Columbian's have health care pretty much at the top of our list of things important to us – in terms if services delivered by the government.

Were you aware that one third of BC's population, that have chronic disease, take up 80% of the costs of Pharmacare, payments to doctors, and hospital costs? -- I certainly wasn't until I read this article. With couples having less children, our population as a whole is ageing, which could have a serious effect on not only health care, but all services delivered by government.

That is why I found the suggestions that she made to be well worthy of thought and discussion ... not only by BC's political parties ... but by all residents of the province.

So what did she have to say??

·         provincial leaders should be pushing the federal government to see that children were not bombarded by media messages regarding unhealthy foods (I'll take that to mean starchy foods, sugary cereals and snacks, fruit punch, soft drinks, etc)

·         that employers in the workplace should look at ways to promote healthy lifestyles

·         school should continue to explore more ways to reduce unhealthy weight in children

And the one most likely to create controversy ... government should look at increasing taxes on sugary and unhealthy snacks.

Now some are going to say enough with the taxes ... and these ideas are an intrusion into our personal life, BUT do we not already tax at least two items already that are known to cause health problems – at least when consumed or used to excess. I speak of cigarettes and alcohol.

Is this going to be popular? I doubt it, and indeed I have already had it said that suggestions of more government regulation, or intrusion into our lives, may be seen as offensive by some people.

But as Kaminsky indicated in this article, 80% of heart disease and 50% of cancer is preventable, so shouldn’t we at least explore how we can get those numbers down?  Will that require more regulation and / or taxes?

I don't know; but it's obvious that things could and would look different in how much is going to health care – and to what areas of health care – if cancer rates and heart disease levels, among other health issues, could be brought down.

One way to do it would certainly be through finding new ways to promote and encourage healthy living and disease prevention.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops ... and believe it our not, those are the thoughts of one conservative.