Klein's Third Way: Here It Is

Alberta's Conservative government, led by King Premier Ralph Klein has finally begun to release details of its long-awaited "Third Way" reforms to this province's health care system and, once unleashed, the criticism was fast and furious.

Klein's opponents have long suspected that the premier would move to more privatization of our public system - causing a larger disparity between the haves and have-nots - and that's exactly where his reforms are headed.

According to CBC Calgary, the proposed 10 point plan includes:

...patients paying for some surgeries and doctors working in both the public and private systems.

One of the biggest reforms is to allow patients to pay for hip and knee replacements if they don't want to join the waiting list for such surgery in the public system.
[...]
Other reforms propose to expand options for private health insurance on treatments that may not be covered in the future, including new technologies and drugs.
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Following fireworks from the opposition in the legislature on Tuesday, the Alberta Liberal Party has yet to release an official online statement although leader Kevin Taft was outraged, as expected, during Question Period.

The New Democrats have the following reaction on their site:

NDP Opposition Leader said that the Klein government has no mandate from Albertans to proceed with the two-tier health care scheme unveiled today.

"I directly challenged the Premier during the November 2004 leader's debate to come clean on his government's health care privatization plans. He denied there was a secret plan, and promised to consult prior to considering changes. These were clearly lies," Mason charged.
...

The Friends of Medicare have been preparing for this fight for a long time and have action items on their site.

Needless to say, the left and all who care about our public system are incensed. Now that Canada's federal government is also Conservative, albeit in a minority government situation, there is growing fear that PM Harper will not force Alberta to comply with the Canada Health Act which exists to preserve our current public framework.

Watch for a huge fight from all fronts in the next few months as the Klein Conservatives try to ram this through. It won't be pretty and it will be extremely noisy. Grab those placards and be prepared to stand up for what all Albertans deserve: equal access to public health care.

Those interested in reading the Government's propaganda "framework" and in submitting comments can do so here.