Smith Just Exploded Alberta Health Care. What Comes Next?

[Oscar]

Smith Just Exploded Alberta Health Care. What Comes Next?

[ https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/11/14/ ... alth-Care/ ]

Critics say the premier’s power grab could mean privatization and turmoil.

Graham Thomson - November 14, 2023 - The Tyee

EXCERPT: "Premier Danielle Smith’s declaration last week that she intended to blow up Alberta’s health-care system came 25 years after then-Alberta premier Ralph Klein literally blew up the Calgary General Hospital.

Klein’s demolition on Oct. 4, 1998, involved tonnes of explosives to bring down a health-care icon the government had declared too old, inefficient and expensive. Ten years after its destruction, however, Calgary was still short of hospital beds and emergency room capacity.

On the other hand, Smith’s announced demolition will be much less dramatic but will involve a massive, long-run restructuring of the province’s system and thus affect every Albertan, for better or worse.

Both, though, are reminders of how Alberta Conservative governments have a tortured relationship with public health care. . . . . "

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