Alberta: Health First
Health Care is Everyone’s Top Concern
Importance
A health care system that’s there when you need it is the number one priority for Albertans.
It’s also the top priority of the Government of Alberta. From the Rainbow Report in 1989 to the Health Summit in 1999, Albertans have said that new solutions must be found to ensure that health care continues to be efficient and available for generations to come.
“Like many individuals who experience a serious medical condition, the system has a choice. It can go back to the old ways and risk long-term collapse, or it can focus on how things are being done, whether they are worth doing (and worth doing that way) and, generally, assume some responsibility for dealing with the causes of the condition. That is the challenge Albertans now face.”
Report Card on the Status of Health Reform in Alberta,
Provincial Health Council of Alberta, 1997.
What’s in the Future?
That’s a question that is creating widespread debate across Canada, as Canadians try to determine future health care needs and consider different ways of meeting them.
Alberta is known as an innovator in health care, a province that is not afraid of making bold changes and striving for excellence. Albertans take pride in their personal accomplishments and trust their government to deliver on its promises.
Albertans also recognize the importance of controlling rising health care costs and maintaining a public health care system we all trust and can depend on.
It’s Time to Find Solutions
The Government of Alberta wants you to understand the challenges and choices it faces, and the importance of taking action now.
More efficient and affordable ways must be found to deliver the most essential health care services. Albertans must also have the assurance that the system is accountable, and that constant improvement is being made.
Over a year ago, the Premier’s Advisory Council on Health, led by Don Mazankowski, was created to study the long-term sustainability of our health care system.
Over the next year, decisions will be made to make sure we have a health care system that meets our needs now, and in the future.
Take a few minutes to read this publication. It provides important information on today’s health care issues, the questions we must answer for the future and the directions we will take to build a better health care system.
Alberta’s Health Care Challenges and Choices
Your Dollars:
Federal and Provincial Cost Sharing
More than 40 years ago, the federal government and the Government of Alberta paid equal shares of Alberta’s health care costs.
Today, the provincial government pays 73.3 per cent of health ministry costs. Your health care insurance premiums pay for 10.5 per cent of the costs, and the federal government covers 16.2 per cent.
Now and Next Year
Across Canada, provincial/territorial health care spending is expected to reach $69.2 billion in 2001/2002—up $20 billion in the last five years.
In 2000/2001, Alberta spent $1,950 per person on health care, making it one of the largest per capita spenders on health in Canada. In 2001/2002, Alberta is projected to spend about $6.87 billion on health, which is about $18 million each day, or $2,228 per person. Health care spending, including capital costs, amounts to about 34 per cent of total provincial expenses.
In 1991/1992, health spending was 27 per cent of the provincial budget. Cost projections indicate that by 2003/2004, health care spending could grow to about 37 per cent of the total government budget.
Alberta and British Columbia are the only provinces that collect health care insurance premiums. The other provinces cover health care costs from tax revenues. Low-income residents—over 550,000 Albertans—have their premiums fully or partially subsidized.
Rising Costs
For Advanced Health Care Services
New treatments, drugs and technologies continue to be developed, creating higher health care costs.
The province is also dedicated to paying for the cost of research into new and better ways of treating disease and injuries. While Albertans deserve to receive the most advanced and effective health care therapies, the higher cost of those therapies pose a challenge to the health system.
- In the past year, Alberta Health and Wellness drug plan costs increased by 18.9 per cent. In 2000/2001, the total drug plan net costs were $299 million.
- An MRI machine, that provides valuable diagnostic information costs over $2 million. An MRI scan costs an average of $535 and over 70,000 scans will be done in Alberta this year.
- In 2000/2001, 50,589 patients received Celebrex, an anti-inflammatory drug that provides relief to people with osteoarthritis, at a cost of $515 per patient.
- Hip or knee replacement surgery costs an estimated $10,000. As of June 30, 2001, there were 2,517 Albertans waiting for this surgery. In 2000/2001, 4,622 hip or knee replacement surgeries were performed.
- 2,436 adult Albertans received life-saving bypass heart surgery last year. The average cost of a coronary artery bypass surgery was about $20,000.
The Canada Health Act
The Canada Health Act defines insured health services as hospital services, physician services and surgical dental services. Under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan, Alberta provides more services than required by the Canada Health Act, such as chiropractic, podiatry and optometry services and extended health benefits for seniors and their dependents.
Access to Services
While emergency cases are dealt with quickly, there are wait times for many procedures. Across Alberta, the average waiting time for a hospital bed for patients in emergency ranges from 4 to 9 hours, and the average wait time for an outpatient MRI ranges from 18 to 130 days. The average wait time from seeing a radiation oncologist to receiving radiotherapy treatment is 1 to 3.5 weeks. From June 2000 to June 2001, the waiting list for open-heart surgery grew 13 per cent and the waiting list for hip and knee replacements grew by 27 per cent.
“What we need to consider is which aspects of the overall system we can most effectively influence to bring demands and resources into balance.”
- Health System Sustainability – Workshops and Discussion
Papers, Provincial Health Council of Alberta, 1998.
The New Epidemics
While life expectancy has grown, some troubling health trends have become evident. According to Alberta Health and Wellness’ Health Trends in Alberta 2000:
- Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and disability, and accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all deaths. Thirty per cent of us smoke, and while the overall smoking rate is going down, it is increasing for young women.
- Alberta continues to have one of the highest rates of injury deaths and suicide in Canada.
- Aboriginal Albertans, on average, have a shorter life span and have higher rates of diabetes, injury and suicide.
- Thirty per cent of us are overweight, up from 20 per cent in 1985. The rate of obesity in children is also increasing.
- About 64 per cent of Albertans report that they participate in physical activity at least three times a week, about the same proportion as in 1985. The rate of physical activity decreases with age.
- Depression and other forms of mental illness affect at least one in five Albertans at some point in their lives.
- 784,943 Albertans were immunized against meningitis in the past year.
- Heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory disease and injury are the leading causes of death.
Growth and Aging
We use the health care system most in the first year of life, and in our senior years.
Alberta’s population is three million people and growing. At the same time, life expectancy continues to rise. In 2005, our population is expected to be over 3.3 million; in 2015, 3.8 million, and by 2025, 4.3 million. The number of seniors will grow from 290,000 now, to 340,000 in 2005, 490,000 in 2015 and 759,000 in 2025.
A larger and aging population places more demands on a health care system. Right now, one in ten Albertans is employed in health care. More doctors, nurses and other health care professionals will have to be educated and employed by the province to meet these growing needs. At the same time, many health care providers, like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are growing older and nearing retirement.
The History of Health Care in Alberta
The first hospitals in Alberta appeared as private organizations, sometimes in homes, or as company facilities for employees. Municipal hospitals began to appear in the 1920s, and the province began to offer hospitalization at $1 a day in the 1950s. In 1958, Alberta joined the Federal Hospital Insurance Plan, which split the cost of hospitalization between the federal and provincial governments. Physician services were not publicly funded until 1969, when Alberta established the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan.
How and Who Should Deliver Health Care
In recent years, much has changed in how health care services are provided to Albertans. Traditional hospital care has expanded to include many procedures and services that are provided in clinics, community facilities and in the home by a wide range of health care professionals.
Alberta has developed new approaches to attract and keep the necessary number of doctors, nurses and other health care providers it needs to provide services. The true challenge will be in developing more innovative and efficient ways to provide health care services, by the most appropriate health care provider.
Innovations can lead to more effective delivery of health care services, to better meet specific health care needs.
Alberta Health Innovations
- The Northeast Community Health Care Centre in Edmonton provides 24-hour emergency services for serious illnesses and injuries and operates as a community clinic Monday to Friday.
- Many seniors can now live in lodges or apartments with the help of support services, rather than taking beds in hospitals and nursing homes.
- The Capital, Mistahia and Peace Health Links allow people to receive health care advice from registered nurses over the phone, reducing unnecessary visits to a hospital emergency room or a doctor’s office. The service receives 750 – 1,000 calls a day, and the number is growing.
- The Calgary Urban Projects Society is an inner-city community walk-in clinic staffed with doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists and chiropractors who provide a broad range of health services to low-income Calgarians. Referral workers are also available for social services and crisis counseling.
- The Taber Integrated Primary Care project provides physician, nurse clinician and public health services. Physicians are paid based on the total population living in the region.
Putting Health First
Making the right decisions about health care is a shared responsibility between Albertans, government and health care providers. This partnership has been at the heart of all changes and improvements that have been made to the system.
We are Building a Health System that:
- Keeps us healthy and promotes ways to improve the health of Albertans
- Improves service and choice, by reducing wait times and providing information and more choices in health care
- Gives us value for the money we spend, by choosing the most effective and efficient means of delivering care
- Strives for excellence through research and innovation in treatment, health promotion and how we provide care.
Achieving this will take time, and we all have a role to play. But change is needed, to ensure that Albertans, their children and their grandchildren get the health care they need, when they need it.
The Alberta Government will study the recommendations of the Premier’s Advisory Council on Health and determine what action it will take.
We encourage you to learn more about the council’s recommendations and watch for announcements about the next steps that will be taken by your government.
For information on the Premier’s Advisory Council on Health, to ask questions or offer your views, contact:
