User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Health care in Alberta

Alberta's healthcare system is the largest integrated system in Canada. It includes 125,000 staff and 10,000 physicians that serve a population of 4.3 million.

Administration
Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the "major service delivery arm of Alberta’s health system, governed by the AHS Board and accountable to the Minister of Health."

History
In 1932, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the Farmer-Labour-Socialist, was founded in Calgary. At the 1933 convention party held in Regina, Saskatchewan, the CCF adopted the Regina Manifesto as their program including goals such as number of goals, including universal health care, children's allowances, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, public ownership of key industries.

In March 1935, the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) government passed the Alberta Health Insurance Act which responded to healthcare needs in Alberta and led to calls for Canada-wide standards and funding. British Columbia had already passed similar legislation. The majority of the costs of the health insurance plan were to be shared by the employee, then the employer and two-ninths by the government and the insurance would have covered medical services, hospital care, pharmaceuticals, nursing, and dental work. The next provincial government, the Alberta Social Credit Party In 1950, the province of Alberta under the Alberta Social Credit Party, implemented public hospital care, the second province to do so. The Canadian federal government followed in 1957.

In 1957, the federal government under the leadership of then-Prime Minister, Louis St. Laurent passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act (HIDS), which introduced nationalized public health care.

By 1961, all the provinces, including Alberta, had adopted HIDS. Initially the plan met with some protest. In a 1959 speech, then Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas announced the Medicare plan. Then Premier of Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas and his socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), who were in power from 1944 until, were the first in Canada to provide its citizens with hospital insurance. On July 1, 1962, the day that the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act took effect, ninety per cent of the doctors in the province went on strike. The strike ended on July 23. The strike had public support for awhile through Keep Our Doctors (KOD) Committees. but that changed as patients became concerned about lack of access to healthcare. During the strike, the provincial government encouraged doctors from Britain, the United States, and other parts of Canada, to replace the striking doctors and local citizens organized to support new medical clinics with the new arrivals. The failure of the 1962 doctors' strike was a milestone for Medicare in Canada—ten years later the Saskatchewan model was adopted throughout Canada.

In a process of modernization, then-Premier Lougheed, who served fifteen years from 1971 to 1986, which included a period in which Alberta "experienced unprecedented economic growth and political stability". Premier Lougheed developed key infrastructure, which included the construction of hospitals, an increase in the number of health professionals, and in their wages.

Against the backdrop of a decrease in the price of oil which caused a fifty percent decrease in resource revenue to the provincial government, the "cost of servicing the debt increased significantly, rising from $22 million in 1981 to $880 million" which represented 7.3% of provincial expenditures in 1989/90.

During the premiership of Don Getty, Alberta experienced an economic downturn. Public sector employees were dissatisfied with their wages and by the late 1980s, nurses and social workers went on strike, even though strikes were illegal in Alberta.

In the late 1980s, the premier of Alberta called for a Premier’s Commission on health care services.

Under Premier Getty, Department of Health officials had played a major role in setting provincial government policies. Premier Ralph Klein changed that. He said, "officials in the Health Department do not set the policy for this government. The Cabinet, the Executive Council, of this government sets the policy, and it is not the job, but the responsibility of the department to carry out this policy." Conservatives in the Alberta legislature wanted to rein in "knowledge workers" who had too much influence on policy.

"Alberta Health undertook a stakeholder consultation process with health provider organizations in 1992."

In 1993 then Premier Ralph Klein, published "Seizing Opportunity, Alberta's New Economic Development Strategy" in which he laid out the government's economic strategic plan, which placed science, technology, and industrial innovation as key components. In 1994, he named Dianne Mirosh to the newly created Alberta Science and Research Authority (ASRA)—the "top body" to "develop, implement, operate and evaluate" the long-term strategic plan.

Klein's public policy moved away from central government and emphasized smaller government. Under his tenure, the 1994 Regional Health Authorities Act replaced over 200 existing local hospital and public health boards with seventeen, and eventually nine Regional Health Authorities,  as part of a broader fiscal agenda to reduce the deficit and debt. Heath reform under the Klein government included the is notion that Albertans have to develop self-reliance and take personal responsibility for their own well-being.

The government reduced the number of hospital beds in Alberta from 1993 to 1995. Healthcare spending in 1993 totalled $1393 per capita. In 1995 healthcare per capita decreased to $1156.

The Premier's Advisory Council on Health submitted their report, known as the Mazankowski report on January 8, 2001. By January 23, 2002, in their published response, the Alberta government accepted all 44 of the Advisory Council's recommendations. The Klein administration listed a number of goals including the introduction of electronic health records to begin with a pilot project in 2002 and 2003 and "multi-year contracts between Alberta Health and Wellness and regional health authorities" by 2004. According to the Health Reform Implementation Team's final report in 2004, achievements included the creation of Health Link Alberta, which was operational as of June 2003 provided free advice from nurses. By 2004, new primary care networks were established.

In 2004, Calgary's regional health authority awarded a "two-year contract worth $20 million for the provision of 2,500 hip and knee surgeries" to the private hospital, Health Resource Centre (HRC) which resulted in the government paying 10 per cent more than the same operation would cost in a public hospital.

Legislation
The Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2020 (Bill 30), an omnibus bill introduced by United Conservative Party's (UCP) Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, passed its third reading on July 29. Bill 30 changed nine pieces of health legislation intended to ensure that Albertans have access to "high quality, sustainable, person-centred health services." The legislation that was amended or repealed, included the Health Quality Council of Alberta Amendment Act, the Health Professions Amendment Act, the Health Care Protection Amendment Act, the Alberta Health Care Insurance Amendment Act, the Regional Health Authorities Amendment Act, the Hospitals Amendment Act, the Public Health Act, the Health Governance Transition Act, and the Provincial Health Authorities of Alberta Act.

Major reports
Premier Jason Kenney commissioned a performance review of Alberta Health Services (AHS) which was submitted by Ernst & Young on December 31, 2020. The report made related recommendations in regards to "governance, people, clinical services and non-clinical services" in order for AHS to meet "budget targets", to respond to growth, and to reduce wait times for surgeries.