Stelmach Perhaps Correct: Health Care is Not "Political Football"

Ed Stelmach is right..  we've had enough "Political Football" in Alberta

It's no big secret that I've soured on the PC Party of Alberta, and have recently decided to support the Wild Rose Alliance.

I think the "same old, same old" has gotten old, and that the fresh, energized new face of Danielle Smith is the tonic Alberta needs to bring in new ideas and to "clean house".

But, I'm afraid, I'm onside with the government today.

Sort of.

The opposition parties, including the Wild Rose, and Raj Sherman as an independent all called for an official inquiry into whether or not doctors are being paid or being given certain benefits in exchange for keeping quiet on the negative impact of delays in our system.

And our Premier, Ed Stelmach, has opposed such an inquiry, suggesting that this is "all about politics".

And he may be partly right.

Health Care in Alberta has been failing us for decades now.  With the typical response of our current government being to just throw more money at it, hoping it will somehow magically get better.  And it hasn't.

As blogged earlier, we spend more money and get less than most provinces in Canada.

Comparisons internationally are just as dismal.

But the answer isn't some committee looking into allegations of hush money and intimidation..  it's to over-haul the system.

It's to expand private deliver and public funding - similar to Japan and most European models.  Public funding, and private delivery equals greater efficiency and less expenditure devoted to bloated bureaucracy and five star union pension and benefits.

Danielle Smith, I think, is on the right track - however, this latest demand to me smacks of political theatre.. which I think we've had about enough of.  Let's get serious - and rather than some limited inquiry, whether it's the Government examination of "wait times" or the opposition demand for an inquiry into intimidation and hush money - let's actually engage into a focused all party examination of health care delivery around the world, and a serious plan to implement a model similar to those which seem to be giving the citizens the "most bang for the buck".

Let's examine whether the plan to build hospitals in every town of more than 50 people under Don Getty was a good idea.

Let's examine whether the centralization of health care management in the "Super Board", the hiring of a consultant who wasn't listened to by the Government and who was then fired for all the wrong reasons - necessitating a big severance payout was a good idea.

Let's examine whether spending more and more without obtaining results enjoyed by other provinces paying less was a good idea.

We don't have to engage in political football.  We can just have an honest and open examination of the system in total, and then let the results speak for themselves.