I can almost set a monthly repeat event in my Outlook calendar titled ‘PC blunder results in major media story and public disgust.’

The latest head scratcher comes courtesy of Dr. Stephen Duckett, former Health Superboard CEO prior to Cookie-gate, who disclosed at a speech in Toronto that the PC Government had a program in place when he was hired, that helped VIPs (including PC MLAs) jump the long lineups in our health care system. Dr. Raj Sherman (former PC MLA) and Dr. Paul Parks (who took an unprecedented risk to disclose the ER crisis last year) both confirmed firsthand knowledge of this VIP queue-jumping scandal. Personally, I never witnessed this during my short time in Government (and I’m sure many other PC MLAs had no knowledge of this either); however, that definitely doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening for some in the ol’ boys club.

As distasteful as this latest health scandal is, it does provide some very real insight into a couple of health system myths than many on the PC/Liberal/NDP left don’t like to talk about.

First off, we do have a 2-tier health system. One for those with money or connections who can skip the horrendous wait times either by calling in some favours here in Alberta, or by flying to BC, Quebec or the US to pay to have the surgery privately performed immediately. The other tier is for the rest of us – we get to sit patiently in the queue while the Government spends over 40% of our tax dollars on health care and the wait lists keep growing.

The fact is Government health monopolies result in the most unjust of all 2-tier health systems – only the very rich or very connected get first dibs.

Which leads me to a second myth. If we just had more specialists (i.e. surgeons) our massive wait lists would decrease. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Wrong.

In many cases, our specialists have the capacity to perform many more cataract surgeries, hip replacements and other procedures, but can’t get enough time booked in hospitals to perform them. So although the wait list for a hip surgery might be a year, we have dozens of doctors that if given enough operating room time, would be able to virtually eliminate our wait lists almost immediately.

So why don’t we build more hospitals you say? Because that’s not the problem either; the PCs have built so much empty hospital space they should start renting out hospital wings for conventions and graduations.

The problem is neither lack of specialists nor a lack of room – the problem is rationing. After the Superboard finishes paying for all their new empty hospitals, VP salaries, HR staff, government relations people, executive severances, automatic bonuses and a few hundred million more in wasteful middle management, there isn’t that much left for actually paying specialists to perform surgeries. This means that AHS caps the number of hips, knees, cataracts and other procedures they do. Open heart surgery and cancer treatments get priority of course, but that leaves many with still serious but less life threatening medical needs, lingering in discomfort and pain for months and even years.

The current top-down system cannot fix the problem regardless of how bright those on the Superboard may be. The Wildrose Party solution can.

Our solution is nothing new – it’s been repeatedly proven effective in virtually every Western European universal health system. The first and most important step is have public health insurance funding follow the patient to the specialist of their choice and let the doctors compete for as many patients as they can regardless of whether they practice in a public facility or not. The current PC approach of dumping the health budget on the Superboard and asking them to figure out where it should go makes the Soviets look innovative.

By eliminating literally billions in empty buildings and bureaucratic middle management (who are often trained health professionals who will find a much more fulfilling position on the front line treating patients), more public funding will be available to eliminate wait lists.

Then you really wouldn’t have to have 7 figures in your bank account or be a connected PC MLA to get the health care you need…you’ll just have to have your public health insurance card and a phone book.