Yesterday, my “prosperity cheque” [$400!] came in the mail. Today, my healthcare premium bill came in the mail. [$132] Seems kind of stupid to me that they give money one day, then take it right back the very next day. I appreciate the idea of the cheques, that the massive amount of money the Alberta government has taken in over the last few years belongs to the Alberta populace so we would should share in the windfall. But healthcare premiums for the year [$520] will more than wipe that windfall, so it would seem to me that a moratorium on healthcare premiums for the year, more or less, would have been a more efficient way of giving us a break. Then again, I guess poor people don’t pay those premiums, so maybe this isn’t so bad. Although I hear it cost $10 million in administration costs to send all these cheques out there. Then again, Mr. Klein announced his plans for his “third way” approach to healthcare today, which is a euphemism for privatization. And this kinda pisses me off cause it’s really a copout, instead of dealing with the problems with healthcare, he’s basically trying to wash his hands of the whole thing and let every man fend for himself. Which means rich people get good healthcare, the rest of us get shit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against some experimentation with the system to find out what works and what doesn’t, but Ralph’s approach just seems naive and disingenuous. Like his electricity deregulation, which results in Albertans paying higher premiums so power companies can build more capacity to serve the American market, in an effort to build greater profits to line their own pockets. Anyway, it was nice to get the extra money, even if it was crass political ploy to distract us from his attempts at dismantling our public healthcare system.