Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has expressed her support for potentially reimbursing individuals who need to travel out of province for medically necessary surgery if it cannot be provided in a timely manner within Alberta. This statement was made during a radio call-in show called “Your Premier, Your Province” when a caller shared his need to seek medical care outside of the province due to the delay in receiving hip surgery. The caller mentioned that the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP) would not cover the cost of the operation and suggested that he should be reimbursed the amount it would have cost the AHCIP if the surgery was performed in Alberta.
Premier Smith agreed with the caller’s suggestion, stating that if surgeries cannot be provided in Alberta, individuals should be reimbursed at the same rate they would have paid for the surgery elsewhere. She mentioned that she campaigned on this concept in 2012 and had intended to commit to it during the recent election campaign. However, due to provincial wildfires and other unforeseen circumstances, she was unable to fulfill this promise. Premier Smith emphasized the importance of solving the problem within Alberta first and expressed her desire to establish a system where maximum surgeries are performed every week to prevent individuals from facing similar situations as the caller.
Premier Smith also discussed efforts to improve capacity within the healthcare system. She mentioned that Dr. John Cowell, the official administrator of Alberta Health Services (AHS), has renewed his contract for another six months and is focused on enhancing the capacity of doctor-run surgical centers and ensuring that all operating rooms in AHS facilities are open and operating at maximum capacity. The premier stated that currently, 60,000 surgeries are performed in the province each year, and she has been advised that the backlog of patients waiting longer than the recommended time will be eliminated by March 2024.
Premier Smith acknowledged the need to reduce waiting times for specialist appointments and treatment. She expressed openness to the caller’s suggestion of implementing penalties if surgeries cannot be performed within Alberta and added that any policy changes would need to be discussed with her caucus. Ultimately, she aims to make the Alberta health system so efficient that the province can offer assistance to other provinces by accepting their patients.
However, opposition New Democrat health critic Luanne Metz criticized the premier’s suggestion of reimbursing for out-of-province healthcare, viewing it as an attempt to undermine public health care. Metz urged the government to focus on resolving the healthcare crisis and providing necessary surgeries within Alberta.