CALGARY, Nov. 20 /CNW Telbec/ - New appointments to the board of Alberta Health Services that come from the US, other provinces, and the private insurance sector are a bad sign for the state of health care.

That was the verdict of D'Arcy Lanovaz, President of CUPE Alberta, which represents about 6,000 health care workers across the province.

"This board has more experience running oil companies than it does administering public health care," said Lanovaz. "This looks like another step towards a corporate approach to delivering an important public service."

Lanovaz was critical of the government for searching for board members from out of province and from the USA.

"I'm not sure what we need to learn from the American system," said Lanovaz. "They have higher health care costs, higher administrative costs, and far lower levels of health care coverage. If that's the model the Conservatives want to imitate, it means hard times for Alberta patients."

CUPE is Canada's largest union with close to half a million women and men who provide public and other services. In Alberta, CUPE's 24,000 members work in, schools, municipalities, health care, non profit organizations, colleges, universities, libraries, emergency medical services, social services and casinos. Visit our CUPE websites for more information www.cupe.ca and www.cupealberta.ab.ca