An emergency physician with over a decade of experience in one of Alberta's major urban hospitals has voiced strong support for the provincial government's controversial healthcare reforms, arguing that the new dual-practice model represents a necessary evolution for patient care.
The Crisis in Alberta's Healthcare System
Dr. Justin Rashad Chin, who works at a major urban tertiary centre, describes himself as a frontline witness to the human cost of a system in crisis. He points to overwhelming hospital pressures, unacceptable surgical backlogs, and the alarming number of Albertans without family doctors as evidence that the status quo has become unsustainable.
On November 24, 2025, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Adriana LaGrange introduced additional healthcare reforms at the Alberta Legislature, building on earlier announcements. The physician emphasizes that while everyone across the political spectrum agrees the current system is failing, the disagreement lies in determining the path forward.
Moving Beyond the Centralized Model
According to Dr. Chin, simply injecting more tax dollars into the same centralized monopoly-delivery model has been attempted for decades without solving fundamental problems. With Alberta's aging population and rapid growth, he warns the situation will likely deteriorate further without structural changes.
From a first-principles perspective, every healthcare system operates with finite resources. In a centralized, solely public, single-payer model, the inevitable constraint becomes access to timely care - manifesting as the long wait times that have become familiar to many Canadians.
Alberta's Comprehensive Reform Strategy
Alberta's restructuring involves multiple coordinated approaches: dismantling the one-size-fits-all Alberta Health Services, creating four specialized provincial health agencies (Primary Care Alberta, Acute Care Alberta, Continuing Care Alberta, and Recovery Alberta), expanding chartered surgical facilities, and now drafting legislation to permit physicians to work flexibly in both public and regulated private settings.
This shift moves Alberta toward a modern hybrid model that maintains universal coverage for medically necessary services while introducing elements of competition, innovation, and patient choice. Dr. Chin stresses this approach differs fundamentally from American-style privatization, where private insurance dominates and public options remain limited.
The proposed system preserves universal healthcare access while offering patients regulated private care options for faster elective procedures. The objective involves alleviating pressure on the public system rather than dismantling it, drawing inspiration from successful international models.
Learning from International Success Stories
Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland serve as examples of universal coverage systems incorporating competing non-profit and private insurers alongside independent providers. These countries demonstrate significantly shorter surgical wait times - typically weeks to a few months for elective procedures like hip or knee replacements - while maintaining high patient satisfaction and per-capita costs comparable to Canada's, according to Commonwealth Fund Mirror, Mirror 2024 and OECD data.
Dr. Chin concludes that Alberta's reforms represent a pragmatic approach to addressing healthcare delivery challenges while preserving the fundamental principle of universal access that Canadians value.
