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Wealthy Albertans already travel for health services, so set up private clinics here, PC contender says
By Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal August 17, 2011 Alberta Conservative leadership candidate Gary Mar says the province must offer private health-care options for wealthy baby boomers or risk losing an economic opportunity.

"The thickness of your wallet should not govern your access to medically necessary health services ... but that does not mean there aren't people who are willing to pay for services themselves," Mar said Tuesday.

"I don't want to stand in the way between somebody who is willing to do that and a health service they feel that they need."

Mar, a former Klein-era health minister, emphasized his support for public health care, but said private care is the "elephant in the room.

"When I've looked at the best health-care systems in the world, at the core of many of them is a strong public health-care system, and so I also support a strong public health-care system.

"But it is a legitimate question to be asked whether or not there is a role for private delivery of health care to complement a public system."

Asked whether he believes wealthy people should be able to buy quick health care, he said: "Within the confines of the Canada Health Act, yes." Albertans are already travelling to facilities in other provinces for private surgeries, he said, adding that establishing private clinics here could bring that business here.

"I'm not talking about people getting better access to cancer treatment, to organ transplants, to emergency care. I'm not talking about those types of services, such as cardiac surgery.

"What I am saying, though, is there are a number of services that are already available, most notably orthopedic surgery that is available in other provinces, that Albertans are already using.

"If ... Albertans say, hey, we could be doing that within this province, and drawing people to our province to get certain services done - like orthopedic surgery - then that may be an economic opportunity for physicians here in the province."

Rival leadership candidate Alison Redford said she was "surprised" by Mar's comments. She believes Albertans want a public healthcare system that works, not a private system that provides preferential treatment to the wealthy.

"Albertans want a public healthcare system. Albertans want everyone to be treated equally," Redford said. "It's a core value. It's a core belief for me."

"I don't want us to have a system, and I don't believe Albertans want us to have a system, that can create preferential treatment. ... I want a system that is going to provide good health care for everyone in Alberta. To think that a private health-care system is going to do that is inappropriate."

Leadership candidate Doug Horner won't rule out private health-care options, but said the public system must be fixed before opening that door.

"At this point in time, I am against it because I think we've got lots to do in our publicly funded system," he said, adding that people need more options for accessing health care besides face-to-face appointments with physicians.

He said Alberta can take advantage of economic opportunities in the health-care sector by leveraging world-class research at the province's universities and offering health-care innovations to emerging markets.

Candidate Rick Orman said Albertans who talk about privatization are frustrated with long waiting lists.

The solution, he said, is to make the public system more efficient, but he is not ruling out privatization if health-care costs spiral out of control.

"I do not believe that today we need to expand to private health care," he said.

"Now, when I become premier ... if there's no other solution and costs continue to go up the way they have, then that's a problem and we will have to look for solutions."

Candidate Doug Griffiths could not be reached for comment. Candidate Ted Morton declined to comment.

Liberal opposition leader Dr. David Swann said giving people the choice to buy better health care erodes the public system because the best doctors will be attracted to lucrative private hospitals.

"Gary Mar's desire for an American, two-tiered health-care system is clearer than ever," Swann said. "It will be one standard for wealthy Albertans and one standard for the rest of us."

Swann said health care is not a consumer industry, it is a service industry.

"Privatization is not the answer."

Friends of Medicare executive director Dave Eggen said Mar "has the guts to say what they're all thinking.

"Maybe Redford didn't get the memo, but the rest have explicitly or implicitly endorsed the privatization of our health-care system for more than a decade."

Eggen said Mar "is trying to reframe this as some kind of reasonable middle ground, which it isn't.

"He is dismantling our health-care system.

"He is prescribing exactly the poison that infects the American health system, which is two-tier, private, insurance-based health care.

"It is very, very troubling. We must stand up and oppose it."
kkleiss@edmontonjournal.com twitter.com/ablegreporter

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

ctvedmonton.ca

The RCMP say they have found no evidence to justify proceeding with a criminal investigation into NDP Leader Brian Mason's allegations of queue jumping in the province's health care system.

The NDPs asked for the RCMP to investigate after the former boss of Alberta Health Services, Stephen Duckett, spoke at an event at the University of Toronto in May, alleging MLAs helped patients jump the queue.

Mason said at the time, a memo authored by Duckett is enough proof to bring in the Mounties. The 2009 memo, which recently became public, outlaws preferential care.

The RCMP began their review of the complaint on June 13th.

Officers say they conducted interviews with several individuals identified by Mason, including elected officials, front line medical personnel, health system administrators, and members of the public who had forwarded tips to the NDP's information line.

But investigators found no evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.


"Our review of Mr. Mason's complaint has revealed no evidence to justify proceeding with a criminal investigation in this case, which is now closed," said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Marianne Ryan with the RCMP "K" Division.

Mason issued a statement late Wednesday expressing his disappointment in the outcome.

"I'm disappointed by the news that there has not been enough evidence presented to this point to proceed with a criminal investigation into queue jumping. Unless someone steps forward with more specific evidence, we will let the case rest," he stated.

Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky spoke to CTV News by phone saying this "welcome news."

"We ourselves were looking for proof to back up these accusations and we could not find anything either," he said. "I hope it helps restore Albertans trust that was eroded last session when these unfounded accusations were made."

Some critics believe there's a reason there is no evidence here.

"We know it's a bit of a closed loop right, if there were people who were seeking to get medical favours they are not going to talk and the people that administered those procedures are not going to talk either," said David Eggen, executive director, Friends of Medicare.

The Liberals continue to push for a public inquiry. They say an inquiry is still needed when it comes to allegations of government intimidation of health care professionals and financial misconduct.

The province still says the Health Quality Council's review will answer those questions.

With files from Kevin Armstrong

The Wizard of Zwoz - thanks to SusanontheSoapbox

Zwoz: The Wizard of Oz
Posted on August 7, 2011 by susanonthesoapbox
It’s amazing what you can learn about a person in 45 minutes. After 6 long months the Whitemud Citizen’s for Public Health (WCPH)* was granted an audience with the Health Minister, Mr. Zwozdesky. It’s hard to describe the meeting, although the word bizarre springs to mind.

WCPH hoped to have a meaningful dialogue with the Minister about the new Alberta Health Act, the privatization of seniors care and transparency and accountability. Instead we were treated to a dazzling demonstration of how the Zwoz keeps the public, the press and the opposition at bay when they ask a difficult question. Here’s the Coles Notes version of Zwoz’s technique: start with the political pulpit—describe something, anything, the government has done and hope that this deflects the troublesome question. If that fails try the conjurer’s trick of misdirection “black is white, you must be mistaken” and as a last resort fall back on the Sgt Schultz response “I know nothing”.**

Here’s how Zwoz used the razzle dazzle technique to dance around our agenda:

The new Alberta Health Act: We asked why the Act is peppered with phrases which open the door to increased privatization? Why is the independence of the Health Advocate compromised by making him report directly to the Minister instead of the Legislature? And why is the Minister given the power to make major changes to the Act by passing regulations instead of bringing these changes to the Legislature?

The Minister popped out of the political pulpit: his government had made a 5 year funding commitment to ensure financial stability. Yes, that was wonderful, but it’s not what we were talking about. Unfazed he moved to misdirection suggesting that our concerns about privatization were based on “rumours” we’d picked up from the leaked paper which set out the transition to the new Alberta Health Act.

This was a shrewd move. By raising the leaked paper first he was able to reshape it to his liking. He said the reference to “privatization” (in fact the entire leaked paper) was simply a reflection of the public’s feedback and did not represent the government’s position at all. Black is white.

Sensing our scepticism (the leaked paper sets out a plan to roll 5 additional pieces of legislation into the new Alberta Health Act—hardly the kind of thing the public would dream up) Zwoz dropped back to the Sgt Schultz defence. He was not in caucus the day the paper was presented and had nothing further to say. Did a rogue government employee take the paper to caucus and get the Premier’s blessing without Zwoz’s knowledge or consent? It doesn’t matter. Zwoz knows nothing about it, so drop it and move on.

What about the Minister’s power to make substantial changes to the Act by passing regulations, thereby avoiding Legislative (public) scrutiny? Zwoz assured us that his power only applied to minor regulatory changes; substantive changes would continue to go before the Legislature. Really? Furthermore, the regulations would be published for all to see. Lovely, published where and for how long? Zwoz thought they’d be published for 30 days on the Health and Wellness website but he wasn’t sure. As far as he was concerned the promise to “publish” a regulation granting him new powers was a fine example of openness and transparency. The question of whether he should have those powers in the first place was irrelevant. Black is white.

Privatization of seniors care: WCPH turned to the government’s “aging in place” policy. This policy will ensure that seniors get the level of care they need without having to move to a new residence every time the level of care increases. Sounds fine in theory, but the government has reduced the number of public care facilities in favour of facilities run by for-profit companies. We illustrated our concern with for-profit facilities by describing the appalling care a senior had received in the for-profit Touchmark facility after she’d left the public Good Samaritan facility.

Zwoz responded from the political pulpit. He’d build 1100 “spaces” already. Interesting, but not relevant. He expressed surprise that the Good Samaritan had provided poor care. It didn’t and we didn’t say that it did. The culprit in this story was Touchmark, not Good Samaritan. Brownie points for misdirection though.

He knew nothing of Touchmark (ah the Sgt Schultz gambit) and added that he was besieged by for-profit companies begging for more money, but he refused to give it to them. I think he thought this would impress us, but it simply confirmed the fundamental problem with for-profit service providers. If they can’t make their profit margins by government subsidies, they will raise fees and reduce costs by cutting services. The result: staff reductions and poorer quality of care.

Transparency and accountability: We referred the Minister to a recent article by Frank Work, the Privacy Commissioner, in which Mr Work advised PC leadership candidates not to promise openness, transparency and accountability unless they really mean it, because the voters would actually call them on it if they failed to deliver. What was his reaction?

Zwoz had two comments. He wasn’t aware of Frank Work’s article. Sgt Schultz again. But when Mr Stelmach took office he swept away the closed opaque regime created by Mr Klein and created the open transparent government we see today. Classic black is white.

Okay, let’s discuss the government’s refusal to call a public inquiry and the impact this had on public trust. Zwoz explained that public inquiries take years and cost millions of dollars, the Health Quality Council of Alberta had everything in hand and would issue progress reports in 3, 6, and 9 months. Ann McLellan was an advisor, how could we doubt her integrity? Think about this a moment. Our question focused on the issue of public trust. Zwod turned it into a question of time, cost and whether Ann McLellan was biased. Nice piece of misdirection Mr Minister.

We were now 15 minutes past our allotted time (and ready to throw ourselves into the reflecting pool outside the Legislature). We thanked the Health Minister for his time and asked to come back another day to continue the conversation. He stopped short of saying are you kidding me? Instead he pointed out that he was a very busy man. This portfolio was the busiest he’d had in 18 years in government, busy, busy, busy. Not to put too fine a point on it—we were done.

Mr Zwozdesky is not the Wizard of Oz. He’s the MC at the Cirque du Soleil. He’s so busy promoting the party line and the interests of the private sector that he doesn’t have the time nor the inclination to listen to Albertans. But the WCPH and groups like it all across the province will not be distracted by the razzle dazzle of the performance even when we end up with front row seats. There is serious work to be done. If this group of politicians won’t address the issues raised by Albertans, there is someone else waiting in the wings who will.

* WCPH was originally formed by the citizens of Whitemud, but has expanded to include citizens across the province. It’s a non-partisan group focussing on health services and seniors care.


**For the youngsters in the crowd, Sgt Schultz was a character in Hogan’s Heroes, a sitcom set in a German POW camp. Schultz was an incompetent oaf who distanced himself from trouble with the classic phrase “I know nothing, I know nothing.”