The Airdrie Health Benefits Initiation (AHBI) and Airdrie Health Foundation (AHF) held a meeting July 27 to ask the question, what is a health co-op and is it the right solution for Airdrie?
Vanessa Hammond, chair of the Heath Care Co-operative Federation of Canada, presented to a small group of interested citizens and stakeholders at the Cam Clark Ford community room.
“Co-ops are about doing something for your mutually agreed social, cultural or economic benefit,” Hammond said. “It’s about us doing something together that’s going to be good for all of us.”
Members of AHBI invited approximately 90 of Airdrie and area’s most influential residents to a special meeting May 11 where it outlined a plan to create an Airdrie Health Benefits Co-operative, including a health park. Since then, the group, along with the AHF, has been working to gain a better understanding of what a co-op is and how a health co-op could function in Airdrie.
According to Hammond, there have been health co-ops in Canada for more than 50 years. Many deal with a specific facet of health care – seniors, teens, ethnic groups and extended health services.
There are 78 health co-ops across Canada – although there is only one in Alberta. The majority of health co-ops are in Quebec and there are several in British Columbia.
“Membership is voluntary – you choose to join. You can’t be forced to become a member,” Hammond said. “Openness and social responsibility are really important in co-ops.”
According to Hammond, each co-op sets the criteria for membership and decides whether to charge a membership fee. For example, Calgary Co-op – perhaps the most well known co-op locally – charges a one-time $1 membership fee.
“If the health co-op was going to say, ‘our only work is going to be providing government-based services with all the money coming from government,’ who would be controlling it? The government,” Hammond said. “(The health co-op has) to do something to diversify its revenue.”
However, Hammond said co-ops that provide services through the Canada Health Act and provincial health services cannot require membership or a fee.
Kim Titus, who recently set up a mental health foundation in Airdrie called Thumbs Up, questioned whether AHBI and AHF have determined if a health co-op is what the community wants.
“Do you have the mandate from the citizens of Airdrie?” she said. “You’re asking government permission to do something rather than asking the community whether this is something they want you to do on their behalf.”
Dr. Julian Kyne, a member of the AHF and local family physician, said it was a “timing thing.”
“There has to be an initiation of the process. You need leadership to get that going. You need leadership and education about what we’re trying to do and a sharing of the vision of what health care could be like,” he said. “I talk to my patients about the concept of the co-op and other doctors are talking about it. There are nurses in urgent care that are talking about it. You have to have a small group initially to move it forward.”
According to AHBI member Stan Grad, $300,000 to $350,000 will be required over the next 12 to 18 months to set up the health co-op. The funds are required to pay consultants familiar with health care, co-ops and government, to pay legal fees and to communicate with Airdronians the plans for the co-op. Grad said the groups would be fundraising to find that money to keep moving forward.
