This week (Tuesday to be exact), Premier Klein's Advisory Council on Health will release its long awaited report that will recommend major changes in the delivery and financing of health care in Alberta if strategic media leaks are to be believed.

The Mazankowski report - named after former Deputy Prime Minister, Don Mazankowski (aka Maz), the Advisory Council Chairman - will cause much provincial wrangling - but it will also be important from a national perspective. It will kick off the "Medicare Year."

Then, later this month Roy Romanow's interim report and spring consultation / townhall / TV debate schedule will be released. Next month, the Kirby Senate Committee will release its final report. And Mr. Romanow will be back with his final report in November.

The health care debate will centre around five major themes: sustainability; financing & delivery; the Canada Health Act; system cost drivers; and int'l comparisons. Maz raised some of these in selected interviews this past weekend. And the CTF identified similar themes in its landmark 140-page report entitled The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment released last September.

Maz on Sustainability
"The escalation of costs cannot continue unless there is enormous (economic) growth - all we're saying is that there's some choices to be made here."

CTF on Sustainability
"In the provincial capitals, health ministers - regardless of partisan stripe - have all stated that health spending increases that double or even triple annual revenue growth are unsustainable."

"If this continues - today's tax cuts vs. social spending debates will quickly give way to tomorrow's spending cuts vs. spending cuts debates: legislatures will be forced to chose between MRIs and text books or worse still heart surgeries vs. cancer tumour resections. Provinces will need only - finance to collect the money, and health to spend it." -- testimony before the Kirby Committee, Toronto, October 29, 2001

Maz on Financing/Delivery
"We don't believe the answer lies in further rationing of services, but the answer lies in finding new ways of funding the health system and new ways and approaches of delivering services."

CTF on Financing/Delivery
"Health care funding must move from pay-as-you-go financing to sustainable pre-funding for each generation of Canadians."
-- page 101, The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment
"Governments must act quickly to involve new providers (including the private sector) in all facets of health care service delivery including technology purchases and major facility construction. Provincial experimentation should also be encouraged and supported whether it is on the financing or delivery side." -- page 102, The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment

Maz on the debate itself
"My real genuine hope is that this document will stimulate thorough and mature debate - hopefully in a way that we can remove the rhetoric and the emotion."

CTF on the debate
"Health care is the number one social policy challenge for the next decade. But, the debate has been dominated by surrogates who have diminished the complexity of reform down to facile bi-polar country comparisons and left vs. right ideological disputes. Despite this obfuscation, Canadians yearn for an ideas-based discussion about all possible options for health care reform." -- Executive Summary, The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment