Letter from the BC Health Coalition re Anbang

Rather than conclude … that Canada is hemmed in to the current system and cannot change, the more reasonable conclusion is that if we want to expand the range of services in the public system, it is better to do that now while there is still very little foreign presence in health care in Canada and the potential costs of [trade] compensation are low.
–Roy Romanow, in the final report of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada

The British Columbia Health Coalition (BCHC) is writing to present our concerns with the proposed acquisition of Retirement Concepts by Cedar Tree Investments. In this deal, Cedar Tree Investments, a subsidiary of China-based Anbang Insurance Group, hopes to acquire majority ownership in B.C.’s largest private long-term care operator.

BCHC is a non-profit and non-partisan network of individuals and organizations with a shared passion for public health care. Our coalition community is comprised of over 600,000 people in B.C. We are young people, seniors, health care workers, faith communities, health policy experts, and people with disabilities. In sum, we work to continually improve the system we all rely on, and to uphold the values of caring and fairness that our system represents. We believe care should be there for everyone when we need it, regardless of our age, gender, income level or the town we live in.
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