Our politicians are afraid to say it. Organized labour pretends the problem doesn't exist. Our waiting times for necessary health services are getting longer.

Government spending on health is skyrocketing and there is no end in sight. Health spending currently eats up 41 cents on each tax dollar collected. In the last decade, health spending has increased by an astounding 65 per cent. At the current rate in Saskatchewan, it's inevitable that half of our tax dollars will go in to the bottomless pit of healthcare.

Meet Joyce Ratke. The Saskatoon Star Phoenix recently reported that Joyce has been waiting for four years to have both her knees replaced. She likens the pain in her knees to knives being stabbed into her joints. She has lost mobility, and has gained weight as a result.

She recently received word that her necessary surgery has been yet again postponed, indefinitely. The Saskatoon Health Authority (SHA) is grappling with a deficit that may balloon to $12 million this year. In a bid to save a paltry $200,000, the SHA is delaying "elective" surgeries until the next fiscal year. Of course, no sane person could possibly classify Joyce's surgeries as "elective."

Joyce's story is one of hundreds around the province. Proponents of public health care continuously demand more money for the system, and decry so-called cuts as the leading contributor to the problems we currently face. The Romanow Commission offered few suggestions, opting instead to join the cry for more tax dollars.

Put simply, the "under funding" argument holds no water. We spend more on healthcare than ever before, yet this hasn't made a dent in health waiting lists. Our health system is running to stand still.

The system doesn't work, and it hasn't for quite some time. It's time to reform healthcare in a bid to reduce costs, and for government to get out of the way of progress.

Reforming the system will involve changing our perceptions and expectations of the health system. No longer can we afford the comfort of claiming Canada has the best health care system in the world. The facts don't support that claim.

The answer for reforming our system lies in opening the system up to competition and competitive contract tendering. Opening up the system to competition would mean hospitals and other health service providers would compete for the right to serve you as a patient. There would be incentives for health providers to provide quality and timely health services in an efficient way. Patients would have a choice.

All industrialized nations have a mix of private and public healthcare. Germany has a statutory health insurance plan that operates similar to SGI. Nine per cent of Germans have chosen to opt out of this plan and purchased private health insurance. Most German hospitals are being privatized and it's anticipated that only a few hundred of Germany's 1,700 hospitals will remain publicly owned. This is just one example of how innovative solutions can lead to good results.

It's time our government showed some leadership in the area of health care. We need to abandon our pre-conceived notions about private health care, and explore ways that adopting the principles of business might help people like Joyce get the help they need.