Alberta
Bureaucratic shuffle not enough to fix health care in Alberta
From the Fraser Institute
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spent a good portion of her yearend interviews discussing upcoming changes to the province’s health-care system including the shift from the single Alberta Health Services to multiple authorities each tasked with overseeing one area of the health-care system. But will the government pair this bureaucratic shuffle with reforms that will actually improve matters for Albertans?
Indeed, Albertans shouldn’t get too excited about reforms to the health-care system’s administrative structure. Back in 2008, Alberta Health Services replaced nine regional health boards, which themselves were amalgamated from 17 authorities created in 1994. Yet wait lists grew continuously over the entire period up to new record highs in 2023.
In 1993, a typical Albertan could expect to wait 10.5 weeks between GP referral and treatment by a medical specialist. By 2008, that wait time had increased to 18.5 weeks and now stands at a remarkable 33.5 weeks (longer than the national median wait of 27.7 weeks).
A lack of money is absolutely not to blame. On the contrary, Alberta’s provincial health-care spending ranked second-highest per person (after adjusting for age and sex) in 2021, while Canada nationally is a relatively high spender among universal health-care countries. At the same time, Canada ranks near the bottom for the availability of medical professionals, medical technologies and hospital resources. And Canadian patients suffer some of the longest delays for access to care in the developed world.
In other words, there’s much more wrong with health care in Alberta than the number of authorities overseeing the governmental system.
So what’s the solution?
Simply put, Alberta should learn from other countries that deliver more timely universal care with comparable spending such as Switzerland, Australia and Germany. For example, in 2020 (the latest year of available data) only 62 per cent of patients in Canada received elective care within four months compared to 72 per cent in Australia, 94 per cent in Switzerland and 99 per cent in Germany.
What do these countries do differently? They all have private competitive providers delivering universally accessible services within the public system, and payment for such care is based on actual delivery of services, known as “activity-based” funding.
Based on details released so far, the Smith government’s bureaucratic shuffle appears to bear little resemblance to these higher-performing approaches pursued abroad. In fact, it looks a lot like the provincial government working from the same old playbook, with another costly exercise to distract Albertans from the real problems in their health-care system. If that’s all this reform amounts to, then we can expect no real improvement for Albertans in need of care or the taxpayers who fund it.
On the bright side, there’s some hope that the Smith government is setting the stage for more meaningful reform. To move toward a higher-performing model with competitive patient-focused delivery, the government must first separate and clearly define the roles of the purchaser of health care and the providers of that care. If moving from one large health authority to multiple authorities is about more clearly defining government’s role as the purchaser and oversight authority for universal health care, with authorities and providers being transparently accountable for delivering timely quality care to patients, then Albertans may be on the road to shorter wait times and higher-quality health care.
But we’ll have to wait and see.
Author:
From the YouTube channel of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
Members of the media join Premier Danielle Smith for a round table on January 21, 2025.
Yakk Stack By Sheldon Yakiwchuk
Prior to Trumps inauguration event and announcement was made that Trump would not be imposing the 25% tariffs…
Which means, Canada seriously dodged a bullet here.
And while the Liberals will most likely frame this as, their success in showing, Bad Orange Man, that they’re tough and ready to burn down what is left of our economy, throwing Alberta under the bus, first…through a nuclear option…
Premier Smith rode this challenge out like the true champion we knew that she would be.
It’s hard to say if this was a legality matter in the grander scheme…or if the 25% tariffs would have truly been as big of an impact on the US…
One thing is clear, however…
Smith was ready to go to the tables with the Trump administration and opt for diplomacy over threats…which should be what we expect from our leaders.
And should these 25% tariffs have gone through…I’m more than sure a Plan B would have been brought out in civil conversations, over screeching rhetoric.
“She’s treasonous”, they screeched.
“She’s supporting her friends in Oil and Gas”, they relent.
“She should put Canada first”, they echo…
And let’s just address these…
Is Walmart beholden to Campbells soup? Fruit of the Loom? Kraft?
Or does Walmart sell products that helps keep their doors open?
Walmart is not beholden to any product…just like Premier Smith isn’t. We have 26% of our GDP – the largest portion – owed to Alberta O&G, something that we have a limited trade partner with, due to the Liberal – Anti-Alberta/Anti-O&G/Anti-Pipeline attitude that wants to spend us further in debt with unreliable and expensive “Renewables”.
What does Alberta get from renewables?
A higher cost for energy, in an affordability crisis, created by the same people who continue to push them…sounds like a terrible deal, for Albertans, and something a true leader would Not Favor.
When Walmart sits down to hash out a deal with Heinz, are they committing treason because they haven’t shown their allegiance to their own, ‘Great Value’ brand Ketchup?
No…other provinces have their own industries and resources, which they are free to continue developing independent of the federal government, as is suitable and supportive of their own economies…Alberta isn’t competing with them, nor Canada as a whole.
Alberta through industry and resource, actually supports Canada through a grand imbalance on “Equalization Payments”…
As do we through paying 50% more into the Canada Pension Plan, than we actually get out of the Canada Pension Plan…to the tune of a $334 Billion Dollars.
And as for this “Team Canada”, horseshit…
The title Premier of Alberta, should hold some clues as to who Premier Smith should be advocating for…as she is the Premier of Alberta and Not the Prime Minister, nor leader in the Liberal Party that has created this fiasco, to begin with.
Rail, as they may…other provinces can’t cast a vote in her support, either way…
None of the other provinces, through Members of Parliament, nor through Premiers, came to support Alberta and our economy through a number of Federal Bills that railed on our provincial resources…
Worse yet…these hypocrites cash cheques from our province, while telling us how to diversify our economy…to which I’d state one thing unequivocally…
If we wanted to be a Have Not Province…like you are…we’ll come and ask you for your advice.
Until then…
I’ll hold my Alberta Flag Higher than my Canadian…
And be proud today, of having the only Premier in the country of Canada, worthy of any praise today!
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