Alberta: Big budget deficit for health care.

This is from the Edmonton Sun.


It is somewhat surprising that the government allowed the regional health authorities to submit such large deficit budgets. As Swann the Liberal leader points out it would seem that the government is not paying too much attention to health care professionals. With the new superboard lacking representation from medical professionals but with plenty of business representatives it is not clear that the new regime will be at all sensitive to patient needs or listen to the concerns of professionals and with the abolition of regional health authorities regional needs will count for less as well.



December 22, 2008
Big budget deficit for health care
Department bleeding red ink
By KATIE SCHNEIDER, SUN MEDIA
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CALGARY -- As the province gets set to revamp health care in the new year, including ditching premiums in January, the ministry has become plagued with a large deficit.
A source told The Canadian Press that the health department is facing a deficit of up to $1.3 billion.
Premier Ed Stelmach confirmed the department is bleeding red ink.
"Part of the billion is the accumulated deficits of the regional health authorities," Stelmach said.
"Some of it is due to our labour agreements, some of it is due to growth in programs ... new therapies, new drugs."
The province might end up putting a lid on health spending increases over the next few years, he said.
To Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann, the solutions to overspending lie with better planning to address quality, accessibility and cost efficiency of the system.
"We need to bring research to the table and listen to the front-line professionals ... they know what's working," he said.
By not doing so, the province is not getting the best bang for its buck, Swann said.
"We stopped looking at where the money is going," he said.
Swann said technology, drugs and the 200,000 or so people without family physicians contribute to the high costs, which could be reduced with good health promotion and prevention.
"People are going to the wrong place or are not sure where to go ... we're not supporting family doctors and primary health care," Swann said.
Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert acknowledged the province spends more per capita on health care than any other jurisdiction, but said the department will not know if it faces a billion-dollar deficit until the new fiscal year.
"The health regions combined submitted a projected deficit of $400 million," Liepert said.
But addressing rising health-care costs is one challenge outlined in Liepert's Vision 2020, which includes providing more health care in community settings and more care options for seniors.
"It's aimed at trying to ensure we do the right thing in the right place and make the system more accessible in the future," he said, adding it has to be more sustainable, not just less costly.
Liepert trimmed $30 million from the prescription-drug program by tripling some premiums and bringing in a $7,500-deductible for high-income earners.
Long-term care is also being overhauled to reduce costs by trying to keep seniors in their homes longer.
-- With files from The Canadian Press
KATIE.SCHNEIDER@SUNMEDIA.CA
//

Alberta Liberals vote for change..

This is from canada.com.
Interesting that the Liberals have such a negative brand image in Alberta that Swann is thinking of changing the party name to that of the province. This imitates the right wing Saskatchewan party next door. No doubt the Conservatives will paint Swann as an extreme environmentalist who will completely wreck the Alberta economy.

Alberta Liberals vote for change
Calgary MLA unveils big plans as new leader

Jason Fekete
Calgary Herald
Sunday, December 14, 2008
A lberta Liberals elected Calgary MLA David Swann as their next leader Saturday, and the new Grit boss already has an ambitious plan to travel the province, triple membership and possibly rename the party.
Swann, an environmental champion and medical doctor by training, defeated fellow Calgary MLA Dave Taylor and former Edmonton MLA Mo Elsalhy with a narrow majority on the first ballot of a preferential mail-in vote.
"The doctor is in,"Swann told about 150 Liberal party members at Calgary's Glenmore Inn.
"I won't be seeing patients, but I will be working for the health of Alberta."
A total of 6,258 ballots were mailed to eligible members, with 4,599 returned to the office before Friday's deadline.
A total of 2,300 were needed for a majority on the first ballot and Swann pulled in 2,468 votes, compared with Taylor's 1,616 and Elsalhy's 491. There were 24 spoiled ballots.
The 59-year-old replaces Kevin Taft, who led the Liberals for more than four years and through two elections, but saw his party soundly thumped by Premier Ed Stelmach's Conservatives in the March campaign.
Swann's first orders of business are re-engaging Albertans and re-evaluating everything the party is doing--including its messaging, fundraising techniques and brand name. He wants to triple the membership to 18,000 within three years and attract more women and youths.
On Saturday, he said he'd like to put a proposed name change to party faithful within 18 months, suggesting Alberta Party.
"I am open to any name that reflects Alberta and Albertans and a progressive, centrist future," he told reporters.
Swann regularly promotes environmental and social democracy causes, and is seen as sitting further left on the political spectrum than his leadership opponents.
He was fired in 2002 as medical officer of health for the Palliser Health Region, after endorsing the Kyoto accord on climate change that the then Klein government opposed. But Swann insisted Saturday the party will not lurch to the left, vowing to "build a party of the sensible centre."
Taylor, Liberal MLA for Calgary-Currie, said the party has a pile of organizational work to do if it's to become a government in waiting, and pledged to work alongside Swann.
He considered himself more business-friendly than Swann, "but I think we both met in the middle."
Asked where the party will go with Swann as leader, Taylor said: "That's going to be interesting to see."
Swann inherits a party $475,000 in debt, a small membership and only nine MLAs in the 83-seat legislature.
He is the first Calgary-based Liberal leader in nearly 40 years, and likely the first city MLA to lead the party into a provincial election since Grant MacEwan -- a personal hero of Swann's--did it nearly 50 years ago.
Elsalhy, meanwhile, said the Liberals must become "a household brand," and believes Swann will keep the party in the centre by heeding members' wishes.
Political analyst David Taras called Swann an extremely good human being who's "very idealistic" and understands grassroots politics.
"The question is whether he can take those humane instincts and translate it into the rough-and-tumble of Alberta politics, and whether he can be a conventional politician," said Taras, a professor at the University of Calgary.
Outgoing leader Taft predicted Swann will prove to be "quite magnetic" and"some-body not to underestimate."
© The Calgary Herald 2008