The recently released Premier's Advisory Council on Health Report, also known as the Mazankowski Report, recommended several strategies that could be put into immediate action to help save lives and reduce health care costs. One of these recommendations, drafted by Dr. Larry Bryan, is to develop a 'Wellness Fund' for programs to prevent disease and promote health through an increase in tobacco taxes.
Increasing tobacco taxes by the minimal amount mentioned by Premier Klein, $1 per package, would not only will reduce the number of young people and adults smoking, it would also net the government approximately $200 million that could used to help Albertan's make healthy decisions in healthy communities.
The province currently spends one out of every three dollars it collects in taxes on health services. Of that, only three per cent of the total health budget is spent on preventing diseases which demand so much on the health system. An increase from tobacco taxes directed to a Wellness Fund could increase that percentage, up to 6% or 1/16 of the health budget, after all an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. These funds could then be used to address the underlying issues that place pressure on almost all aspects of disease prevention and wellness in Alberta, including injury prevention, quit smoking programs, diabetes prevention, and heart health and other higher upstream health determinants. Alberta's continued prosperity relies on a healthy, productive population.
Wellness is an investment. Albertan's can have a future where they have opportunities to improve their own health, and the health of the communities they live and work in. The targeted use of funds raised through tobacco taxes could provide the means to secure that future.
Feel free to contact the Minister of Health and Wellness, and Alberta MLA's, to show your support for this policy recommendation. For information on Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta go to: www.assembly.ab.ca
Brett Hodson, Regional Health Promotion Coordinator
High River Hospital Annex
Headwaters Health Authority
560 - 9th Avenue West
High River, AB
T1V 1B3
Ph: 403.601.1760
Fax: 403.652.0142
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.hha.ab.ca
>>> [log in to unmask] 02/18/02 05:58PM >>>
About 3% in Ontario last I knew!
----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Walsh <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 8:32 AM
Subject: health budget devoted to health promotion
> Does anyone know approximatley how much of the health budget is devoted to
health promotion and disease prevention. I'm also interested in how this
proportion has changed recently.
>
> Thanks,
> G. Walsh
>
> Gordon Walsh
> Research & Statistical Officer
> Provincial Health Council
> Nova Scotia Department of Health
> 902.424.0183
> [log in to unmask]
>
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