An essential aspect of a properly functioning universal health-care system is the ability to provide patients with the care they need promptly. In other words, access to a waiting list is not access to health care.
That is why Alberta’s new plan is such great news: it would allow patients who have been stuck on wait lists beyond medically recommended timelines to get publicly reimbursed for treatment in private clinics.
The idea is that such patients would be given vouchers to allow them to receive the care they need in a private facility, while having costs covered through public insurance.
This type of measure already exists elsewhere in the world. In Sweden, for instance, a national guarantee of treatment was established in 1992. This system allows patients waiting beyond a certain threshold to access health-care services elsewhere in the country at the expense of their home hospital. Wait times fell in Sweden thanks to this program.
Having the money follow the patient, as would be the case with Alberta’s proposed voucher system, helps shift the focus of the health-care system to the needs of patients. A recent poll showed that 65 per cent of Albertans want increased access to privately supplied health-care services.
Few would be willing to pay out-of-pocket for any good or service if the same thing was available and already covered through their taxes. But in the case of health-care services, there is a big difference between the two. That difference is measured in time.
Two-thirds of Albertans believe the private sector can deliver services faster than government-run hospitals.
And waiting for treatment is not like waiting to purchase concert tickets to see your favourite artist. These patients are waiting for care that would ease their suffering and save their lives.
If the public system were able to fulfil its fundamental mandate of providing access to care for Alberta patients, there would not be such a strong demand for private services.
The province has already started to shift to a more patient-focused approach with the gradual adoption of activity-based funding and the opening to mixed practice. Indeed, these measures give both patients and health-care providers more choice.
The proposed voucher system goes in the same direction, and should be celebrated and encouraged. Albertans already approve of it, as 83 per cent of respondents to an April 2026 Ipsos survey agree that patients who have been waiting for surgery longer than medically recommended should be able to get reimbursed for treatment at a private facility.
In Europe, the public and private systems work collaboratively to ensure that patients receive the care they need. There, the private system is not seen as detrimental to universal care, but rather as a tool that makes the system work better and makes care more accessible.
