Alberta taxpayers are paying an arm and a leg for our costly provincial health-care system, but we’re not getting the best results. A key reason is that Alberta’s health-care professionals are consistently being paid more than their counterparts in other provinces, according to analysis recently released by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Take doctors. Doctors work hard, are well-educated and deliver necessary services, but it would be an understatement to say Alberta’s doctor costs are inflated.

The Alberta government spends significantly more per-person on doctors than Canada’s three largest provinces – ranging from 15 per cent more than Ontario to 20 per cent more than British Columbia. Taxpayers would save over $900 million every single year if the Alberta government matched per-person spending on doctors in the other large provinces.

Alberta’s spending on doctors has increased by 300 per cent between 2002 and 2018, which is far greater than the province’s growth in total health-care spending (190 per cent) and much higher than the growth in spending on doctors in other large provinces.

Perhaps most alarming is that while costs have exploded, the average number of services provided per doctor has declined. From 2009 to 2016, the number of services provided by an Alberta family doctor fell by seven per cent while the average cost per service increased by 37 per cent.

A key factor driving this high spending is the way our doctors are paid. In Alberta, the majority of doctors are paid fees for completing specific services rather than earning a pre-determined salary. This is a very expensive way to pay doctors and Alberta taxpayers are being forced to pay fee-for-service salaries that are far above those in other provinces, according to the Blue Ribbon Panel.

The average fee-for-service salary for an Alberta doctor is $413,035. That’s roughly $100,000 more than those in B.C., Ontario and Quebec, and 35 per cent more than the average of the provinces analyzed by the Blue Ribbon panel.

It’s not just Alberta doctors who are being overpaid.

A Registered Nurse in Alberta who is eligible for the maximum compensation rate earns $112,974 annually, which is over $20,000 more than the same nurse in Manitoba who works the same number of hours.

For the five different types of nursing positions examined, Alberta's maximum salaries are all higher than in B.C. and Quebec, and are only lower than one type of position in Ontario (Graduate Nurse). Alberta's nurses also tend to receive costlier premium pay rates, overtime and holiday benefits.

Many other Alberta health-care professionals are receiving inflated salaries and benefits. Of the 26 health-care professionals examined by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 24 are paid more than the average of comparator provinces (based on maximum compensation rates). The two professions that are underpaid are relatively lower income positions and never received less than $2,000 below the average.

In contrast, many of Alberta’s overpaid professionals receive higher income and make significantly more than their counterparts in other provinces. More than half of all positions examined in the report earn over $10,000 more than the average of the other provinces every year. 

It’s cheaper to live in Alberta than Canada’s other large provinces so these inflated salaries can’t be justified based on the cost of living. And we’re not getting the best results for the incredible sum of money we’re spending on health care. Despite spending $1,000 per-person more than people living in Ontario, Alberta’s wait times, from referral from general practitioner to treatment, is 10 weeks longer.

Taxpayers would save billions of dollar every year if the Alberta government brought its health spending levels in line with Canada’s three largest provinces. To find these savings, we need our politicians to scale back the inflated health-care compensation costs.

This column was originally published in the Calgary Sun on October 11, 2019.