The aim, the paper says, is to "let individuals pay privately for faster access."
So why is the Federal Minister of Health dithering over this direct challenge to the Canada Health Act, because he is a Tory of course.
Alberta sent copies of its proposal to Mr. Harper and federal Health Minister Tony Clement yesterday morning
Mr. Clement told reporters in Ottawa that any changes to the health-care system must be done within the confines of the Canada Health Act, but refused to say whether he believes Alberta's proposal meets that test.
When asked whether patients should be allowed to pay to get treatment faster than the public system can offer, Mr. Clement said, "I think the Canada Health Act is clear on that question," but he did not elaborate.
Since the Alberta plan touted by King Ralph is Not American style health care it is modeled on Englands privatized National Health Service lets look at how successful that has been.NHS told: put money before medicine
Need I point out that the government does not have to insure that the rich can cue skip to get medical services, they already do. The point here is that Klein wants to offer those services in Alberta so the rich don't have to go to the Mayo clinic. Convinence and service, for those poor rich folks, of course the logic of this is that not having the rich waiting for hip or knee replacements will shorten the waiting period for those poor folks who can't afford to go south of the border for services. But wait a minute if the rich are already going south, they aren't onthose waiting lists anyways. Which sort of defeats Tony Clements soft shoe shuffle saying that he will consider the Klein plan in light of increasing access and decreasing wait times. Alberta's 'Third Way' could mean health-care showdown with Ottawa
Cy Frank, the Calgary doctor who spearheaded a pilot project that resulted in a dramatic drop in waiting times for hip and knee replacement, said nobody in the government had consulted him or his peers about allowing patients to pay for certain orthopedic services.
"We're not aware of any such plan, but I know they've been musing about that," said Dr. Frank, who is director of Alberta's new Bone and Joint Institute.
Launched last April, the pilot project has seen waiting times for hip and knee replacements slashed. Patients are on the operating table 11 weeks after the first referral to an orthopedic surgeon rather than the usual 19½ months.
But Colleen Flood, a health law expert at the University of Toronto, said research has shown that waiting times in the public system have actually increased in countries such as New Zealand, Ireland and Spain that have allowed doctors to work in both the public and private systems.
"Many countries that allow a private tier have a raft of complicated legislation to try to suppress its ability to flourish," she said.
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