MYTH: Privatization costs less
FACT: Privatization funnels public funding into private profit
Every dollar spent on profits is a dollar that doesn't go to patient care. And while privatizers frequently claim that private health care is more “efficient” than public, the actual data shows just the opposite! Surgical procedures performed in for-profit facilities in Alberta routinely cost more than double the cost of the same procedures in our public hospitals.
Worse, for-profit health care companies are notorious for ’cream skimming’ for the most profitable, least complex cases, leaving the most complex and costly procedures to the public system. They’ve also been known to upsell and pressure patients to pay out of pocket for un-insured services, resulting in over-diagnosis and unnecessary followups. Profit needs to come from somewhere, after all! Is it any wonder then that an estimated 30 per cent of medical and surgical interventions in Canada are potentially unnecessary?
Just look at the United States, the only OECD country without universal healthcare. As per 2026 OECD Health Statistics, the United States spends $12,649 USD per capita (about $17,844 CAD!) on health care, compared to $5,946 USD (about $8,388 CAD) in Canada.
And despite 92.3% of Americans having some form of health insurance (at an average cost of $25,572 USD/$36,022 CAD per family!), 23% of working-age adults still can’t afford health care between copays, deductibles, coinsurance, etc., while medical expenses and illness-related loss of work are responsible for two-thirds of personal bankruptcies! Is it any wonder then, that the majority of Americans support Medicare for all?
Other countries' experiences with privatization have panned out similarly: Australia introduced a two-tier system in 1999, and in the intervening years health care premiums have increased 60% more than wages! Privatized surgeries in England cost 40% more than they would in the public system. Germany's complex system of ~100 private insurers has resulted in some of the highest health care administration costs of OECD countries, while patients have to fight their insurers for coverage or else fall into debt.
Or just consider here in Alberta, where we have seen a significant increase of public spending on private surgeries in recent years, with very little to show for it. Worse, we have seen extremely concerning allegations from Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) former CEO suggesting that the provincial government has interfered in the procurement process, including pressuring AHS to approve inflated for-profit surgical contracts. These allegations are yet to be tested in court, but they remain shrouded in secrecy, and the government has refused to launch a real public inquiry into what could be the biggest ever scandal in Canadian health care. All while plowing forward with unprecedented surgical privatization.
Other sneaky deals to privatize Alberta’s health care services have been made behind closed doors, with next to no transparency or accountability to Albertans. The risk is made clear by home-grown examples like Calgary’s Health Resource Centre, which in 2004 was awarded a $20 million contract to perform 2500 hip and knee surgeries (at a 10% mark-up), and which in 2010 declared bankruptcy. The government was forced to spend additional millions to bail them out, just so that patients weren't abandoned! The bottom line: these corporations’ have an obligation to their shareholders, not Albertans.
Under Canada’s universal, single-payer public health care, no one has to make the impossible decision to forgo needed medical care due to the cost. But if Alberta goes through with entrenching two-tier, American-style health care, we could soon be faced with American-style medical bills too, and a system where access is based not on need, but the size of your wallet.
The real solution?
Stop subsidizing private profits and protect and expand our public health care instead! Implementing single-payer health care expansions like Pharmacare would result in major out-of-pocket savings for Canadian households and employers, and billions of dollars in downstream cost savings for our health care systems by keeping people healthy and out of hospital. Research shows that every public dollar spent on health generates between $1.32 and $1.45 is generated of additional GDP. It just makes cents.