Dr. Swann has no solution

Dr. David Swann, the leader of the Alberta Liberals, is once again up in arms about the Alberta government’s plans for health care.  He complains that the government should:

The Premier must reverse the physician hiring freeze immediately and take rapid steps to increase the capacity of the health care system: more beds, more health care professionals, more public health officers with the skills to combat infrequent but potentially serious disasters such as pandemics.

He further, today, stated:

Swann took in a media briefing Liepert gave to reporters in Calgary Tuesday afternoon, and says Liepert’s first priority is cost cutting.  The Liberal leader says the goal of the stelmach government is to move health care towards a privatized system.
“This is health reform by stealth. This committee is a cover for making the changes he already has in mind or if he doesn’t he has a direction that he’s heading and he’s not telling Albertans.”  Swann says it’s almost impossible for the committee in two months to come up with major legislative reforms that are going to make an improvement in patient access and cost effectiveness of the system.

Of course, the only proposals he seems to have are to pour more money into the system!  When the province is forecast to run a deficit of $6.7 Billion, where does he propose we get the money to hire more doctors, nurses, and expand hospitals?  He complains about cost overruns in the new South Calgary hospital, but doesn’t explain how they could have been avoided or how he would reduce these costs…  Worst of all, he plans to take the worst aspect of the current system (bulk payment to hospitals without accountability for what treating a patient actually costs) and applying it to doctors by taking them off fee for service and putting them on salaries that are independent of their patient load.

The worst part is that which is unsaid – the provincial government doesn’t have the money to pour more into health care, and “efficiencies” are not there to find billions of dollars a year in savings.  Dr. Swann wants to raise our taxes and then waste it on enlarging an already broken health care system.

Dr. Swann is wrong on health care for Albertans.  Of course, Ed Stelmach and Ron Liepert aren’t much better because they’re only solution is more rationing.

The real solution to our health care crises is to put health care back into the hands of the people – let us choose in a free market.