This week's Calgary Herald column from yours truly looks at Alberta's evolving debate over healthcare, and what the latest polls tell us:
Alberta's ruling Tories have survived more than one political controversy over health care, but there are signs that they may not be so fortunate this time around.
What was supposed to be a quiet fall session of the legislature turned into a disaster for the Stelmach government as the issue of ER wait times morphed from a political liability into a full-blown political crisis.
A new Environics poll shows that health care has now become the top concern for Albertans.
The end of the session is unlikely to result in any sort of respite for the government. A separate poll released last week put Premier Stelmach's job approval rating at just 21 per cent. The poll, though, was taken between Nov. 8 and 15 -- right before this crisis exploded.
Mind you, wait times are by no means a problem exclusive to Alberta. As a report released Monday by the Fraser Institute shows us, it is a problem endemic to the Canadian health-care system.
The report finds that Canadians face an average wait time of just over 18 weeks for surgical treatment, an increase from last year. In Alberta, the average wait time is 22.1 weeks -- up from 19.6 in 2009.
It certainly exposes the myth that our system is the envy of the world. In reality, the world seems to be noticing how badly our system needs reforming.
A recent report from the OECD warns that "reforms are needed to contain expenditure pressures" on the Canadian system, and recommends specifically easing our regulations on mixed public-private contracts for doctors and on private insurance for core services.
Those reforms sound a lot like the sort of ideas discussed in an Alberta Health Services (AHS) document obtained by the Alberta Liberals and released with much fanfare early last week.
Liberal Leader David Swann called the document a "smoking gun" -- proof positive that the Stelmach government plans on dismantling public health care.
It is ridiculous, though, to suggest that this document, even if it were to ever be acted upon, would mean the end of public health care. In fact, it speaks specifically to a commitment to maintain and improve the public system.
Of course, rather than discuss the merits of the ideas in the document or acknowledge the OECD report and the realities in other OECD countries, the very old and tired American bogeyman still haunts our debate.
In a one-page letter to Premier Stelmach last week, Swann mentioned the U.S. no fewer than three times.
I suppose it's easier to rally your political base by speaking of "(moving) Alberta toward two-tier, U.S.-style health care" and "the kind of for-profit system that has created so much misery in the United States."
But as outgoing Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin recently noted, when it comes to access to quality care and containment of costs, 17 of the 20 top health-care systems are in Europe. Canada is not in the top 20.
What makes this health-care crisis different for the ruling Tories is the double-edged sort of now having a real political challenger and the fact that Albertans may indeed be willing to embrace a new approach to health care.
In that same Environics poll showing that health care is now the top concern, it shows the only party with any momentum also happens to be the only party talking frankly about the need for reform: the Wildrose Alliance.
The Wildrose Alliance has now pulled into a virtual tie with the Tories, while the Alberta Liberals and their alarmism over "U. S.-style health care" have actually slipped four points.
The leaked AHS document speaks of a need to make decisions "based on evidence." That sounds a lot like the aforementioned Dr. Martin, who has called on politicians at all levels to start "talking about the facts and to bury the ideology."
Ideology, however, still dominates. Not the nonexistent ideology of the government, but rather the ideology that denounces, demonizes and demagogues anyone who proposes even modest reforms to our ailing status quo.
There are encouraging signs, however, that Albertans are no longer buying it.
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