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The average cost of outsourced surgical procedures has soared by 79 per cent since 2019, when the United Conservative Party Government policy of contracting out private surgical services through the ASI began, says the report based on available public data.
“Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years, the average cost of an outsourced procedure rose by 52 per cent,” Mr. Longhurst wrote in the report released this morning by the Edmonton-based Parkland Institute. “This represents a significant acceleration in cost growth, as the previous year saw only a 13-per-cent increase.”
The big cost jump is likely the result of negotiated contract prices with private surgical providers being ratcheted up, he said. But the magnitude of the increase “cannot be explained by inflation or other reasonable hikes in input costs.”
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The conclusions of Mr. Longhurst’s report, however, are much broader. Not only do the data show how for-profit surgical contracts in Alberta have shot upward, they indicate the ASI has resulted in longer wait times for critical surgeries and diverted limited pool of qualified surgeons and other medical staff from public hospitals at the same time as the government’s funding of public hospitals has declined.
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https://albertapolitics.ca/2025/03/s...arkland-study/
So we've been enriching private shareholders instead of fixing our healthcare system. The dollars are there, you people have just been electing politicians that have been sabotaging the system for years. And the government shows no sign of reversing course here.