UCP’s Alberta health-care reforms are big, bold — and risky
What they’re doing is ensuring total political control over health care, end to end. The days when a governing board could argue with the government are over
The forced march to a new health-care system sped up Tuesday, with a UCP bill to enable many of Premier Danielle Smith’s prized reforms.
As details emerge, it’s now obvious that this is the most wrenching change to Alberta health care since local regions were merged into Alberta Health Services in 2008.
Changes of this magnitude can take decades to function properly — and sometimes they never do. That’s exactly what the UCP says about AHS.
It’s the end of good old AHS as the prime mover of Alberta health care. The shrinking colossus will retreat into the hospitals and by fall, I bet, will be rebranded as Alberta Hospital Services.
It seemed there might be a cabinet member for each of the four new agencies, but only Recovery Alberta will have a unique minister, Dan Williams.
