To fix an epidemic of lengthy wait\u002Dtimes, Alberta\u0027s health\u002Dcare system has much to learn from other countries with similar or lower spending.
Unfortunately, the year ended with more bad news. According to an annual survey of physicians, patients in Alberta faced a median wait of 33.3 weeks between seeing a general practitioner and receiving treatment — that’s 5.9 weeks longer than the Canadian average and more than three times longer than Albertans waited in 1993 when the Fraser Institute published the first nationwide estimates. In fact, wait times in the province have risen every year since 2018.
This is not just an Albertan issue, but a Canadian one. In fact, Canada routinely ranks at the bottom for wait times for specialist consultations and treatment compared to 10 international peers, including Switzerland, Australia and Germany.
Consider that before the pandemic, Alberta had the second-most expensive provincial health-care system in Canada on a per-person basis. While Alberta ranked roughly middle-of-the-pack among provinces for per-person spending on health care in 2022, Canada itself ranked as the 8th most expensive universal health-care system in the world on a per-person age-adjusted basis in 2020. In other words, Alberta is an average spender in a very expensive universal health-care country.
In addition to more fully embracing the private sector, universal health-care countries such as Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany also expect patients to share the cost of treatment to reduce demand for services and encourage people to seek care in more appropriate alternatives . These countries also tend to incentivize the responsible use of their resources by funding hospitals based on activity .
It’s encouraging to see Premier Smith talk about improving health care, but it will take fundamental change to truly fix the system for Albertans. Fortunately, the provincial government can learn from the success of other jurisdictions.Share this article in your social network
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