Alberta's health care reform is being compared to shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
"When we look at the reforms the province is undertaking - reducing the number of surgeries, cutting staff, delisting - it all seems like...we're not really dealing with the core problem which is a flawed structure for Medicare," says Nadeem Esmail from the Fraser Institute.
Esmail says he would like to see the province make major reforms like allowing funding to follow patients instead of allocating lump sums to hospitals.
He also says cutting the number of surgeries is not reform. "If you do less surgeries you will save money in the short term but, remember, you have to deal with these people eventually," says Esmail.
Darlene Green was initially scheduled for foot surgery this past December. It never happened because she was told there was no more money for surgeries. "This will only get aggravated as I get older, the problem won't go away it will just get worse," says Green. At this point, she is scheduled for surgery in October.
Alberta currently spends more on health care than any other province but the average wait time for common medical procedures is higher than the national average.
