Letter on Canadian Health System Stewardship (unpublished)
Letters Editor
Calgary Herald
Re: “Opening access to health care choices is a moral duty,” Ralph Klein, Opinion, July 30
Premier Klein states that “all the money in the world” is not going to eliminate waiting lists, unless the source of the funds is private instead of public. What nonsense. An MRI machine or surgical bed is no different whether paid for by private or public dollars.
Excessive queues are eliminated by making minor, selective adjustments in the capacity of the system. Compared to the global costs of establishing and maintaining a health care system, the costs of these adjustments are negligible.
Responsible stewards of any health care system, whether public or private, will make these appropriate adjustments. The difference is that the public system would be adapted to accommodate everyone, whereas private systems accommodate only those with the ability to pay.
By failing to tweak the capacity of the system, Premier Klein has confirmed that he is an irresponsible steward of Alberta’s public system. He should consider resigning so that he could accept a position as a health care executive in the United States. Our grand experiment with his preferred private system has demonstrated that we are capable of spending almost $2 trillion without allowing the 45 million uninsured to have any position in the queue.
All systems ration care. Excessive rationing due to limited capacity is very easily remedied. Rationing by ability to pay, in contrast, results in suffering and death. We know which model of rationing Premier Klein prefers, but which model do Albertans really prefer?
Don R. McCanne, M.D.
Senior Health Policy Fellow
Physicians for a National Health Program