Shortly after being appointed health minister in 2006, Dave Hancock (now education minister) endorsed the status quo in our health care system declaring that user-pay, private health care alternatives were not an option in Alberta.

Fortunately, Alberta's new health minister, Ron Liepert, doesn't feel the same way: "It's all on the table," Liepert recently told journalists.

This is good news because maintaining the crumbling status quo is not a very lofty goal. According to the 2007 "Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada" report by the Fraser Institute, Alberta ranked fourth out of the ten provinces when it comes to wait lists. In fact, the wait a patient is likely to face between referral by their family doctor and receiving the treatment they need is 19.5 weeks. The Canadian average is 18.3 weeks.

Why are most Albertans waiting 137 days for treatment Don't for a minute think that it's because they don't mind the wait. As the report points out, a 1991 Statistics Canada survey indicated that 45 percent of those who are waiting for health care in Canada describe themselves as being "in pain."

What's the solution Doctor and nurse unions often say more money.

In the recently released National Physicians Survey, 57.3 percent of Alberta doctors cited funding as an impediment to delivery of care.

But is a lack of money really the issue As Premier Stelmach so correctly pointed out recently: "The level of funding for health care in Alberta far exceeds per capita funding in other provinces."

If money really was the driving factor in wait lists, Alberta should have the shortest wait times in the country, and they should be dropping each year. In 1993, the Alberta government spent a little over $4-billion on health care, this year they will spend over $12-billion. Even if you adjust for the growth in our population and inflation, Alberta has increased real health care spending by 54 percent during this same period. If money was the primary factor then wait times should have been cut in half since 1993. According to the Fraser study, the opposite has happened.

In 1993, the median wait a patient would likely face between referral by their family doctor and receiving treatment was 10.5 weeks, again slightly above the Canadian average of 9.3 weeks.

A 54 percent increase in real funding for health care and wait times nearly double. Clearly shovelling good tax dollars after bad into the system isn't working for Alberta.

In fact, it's not working anywhere in Canada. Every single province has seen their wait lists grow since 1993. Some, like Saskatchewan have nearly seen theirs nearly triple in length. Nor is this an ideological issue. Governments of all stripes from NDP to Conservative have all been on the "pay more, get less" plan for health care.

Luckily, Alberta's new health minister is off to a better start than the last one. He at least understands the need for change. To quote: "One thing that is certain is that change is going to happen over the next four years because if we don't, we don't have a health-care system for any of us."

For the sake of those Albertans who continue to suffer and wait for care, let's hope Minister Liepert isn't just talk.