Alberta government approve their own policy to create private health-care system
Patient #1: Need a knee replacement? No problem!
Got cash?
Move to the head of the line then
Patient #2: Need a knee replacement? No problem!
Got cash?
Oh... you can't afford quality care? Go home. We'll give you a call in a few years
University of Calgary associate professor Lorian Hardcastle who specializes in health-care policy and law, said, “There’s already a link between wealth and health, where those who are wealthier already tend to be healthier,” she said. “And so if we allow those October 20, 2020
Healthier people to buy quicker access to care, then that just exacerbates those inequities between the health status of the wealthy and the poor.”
She says a private system could pull doctors and other expertise away from the public system if they can make more money on the private side. She pointed to issues with other private tier health systems, like in Australia and the U.K., where governments have had to step in and regulate where and how doctors work.
What does this mean for the federal funding and transfer payments?
She said Kenney and the UCP will also have to be prepared to negotiate with the federal government on the issues of federal health funding and transfer payments. [Read more]