EDMONTON — Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney says a United Conservative government would work to reduce bureaucratic bloat in health care and explore private delivery options. Alberta’s health spending is $22 billion this year, about 40 per cent of the total budget. She agreed that wait times for cataract surgeries and knee and hip replacements need to be addressed, but noted that breast cancer surgery wait times are down, as are waits for radiation treatments. “There’s more to be done, but you’re not going to get that by freezing funding when other health-care needs continue to go up.”Debates over private care have long been fractious and politically polarizing in Alberta. Critics call private care a covert way to siphon public dollars to private providers so that those with the deepest pockets can jump to the head of the line.

Source: National Post February 20, 2019 23:03 UTC