Despite any fearmongering about “American-style” health care, the Smith government’s new patient-focused funding model for surgeries is another step towards better health care for Albertans.

At an initial group of 12 public hospitals (including Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary and Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton) the government will pay for a select set of orthopedic and eye surgeries on a per-patient basis. The plan is to expand this funding model, after careful assessment of results, and move away from lump-sum hospital budgets.

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This is hardly a radical move. Better-performing universal health-care systems across the developed world have long paid hospitals on a per-patient basis. The logic is simple. Instead of lump-sum budgets, which effectively make each patient a cost for the hospital, the new funding model incentivizes hospitals to provide more........

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