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Suit seeks Alberta's compliance with health ruling

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CALGARY, Alberta--A lawsuit filed in Alberta on Friday seeks to overturn the Canadian province's ban on private health insurance for basic health services provided by the government.

The lawsuit seeks to compel the Alberta government to comply with the June 8, 2005, ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada in Chaoulli vs. Quebec (Attorney General) that found Quebec's ban on private insurance for health care services that are already provided by the province to be unconstitutional (BI, June 20, 2005).

"Our goal is to build and expand on the Chaoulli decision," said John Carpay, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a charitable organization funding the Alberta lawsuit.

The suit, which seeks class action certification in the court of Queen's Branch of Alberta Judicial Centre of Calgary, asks for declaratory relief and damages as a result of the government's failure to provide access to public health care for the plaintiff, William Lloyd Murray, and others who were unable to obtain publicly funded hip replacement surgeries in the province during a two-year period beginning Aug. 4, 2004.

Mr. Murray's request for hip replacement surgery was denied several times by the Alberta government, according to the complaint. He tried to arrange to pay for the procedure himself, but was informed that because the government would not pay for the surgery, he could not have the procedure done, even at his own cost, the complaint said. Mr. Murray eventually traveled to Montreal and had hip surgery in that province, which cost him more than $20,000 Canadian ($17,872) in medical and travel expenses.

The complaint asks for a declaration that the statutory prohibition on the purchase of private health insurance for publicly covered health services and that the denial of medical services based on a patient's age are unconstitutional based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Mr. Carpay said the organization would like to launch future challenges in other provinces--British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island have similar bans--when the organization secures additional funding.

A spokesman for Alberta's health department confirmed receipt of the lawsuit, but declined to comment.