Even as politicians and media personnel alerted the public to the imminent healthcare crash in Alberta, still-PM Justin Trudeau thought it was a good idea to hold a snap election in a bid to consolidate power.
Overall, the cost of this month-long endeavour was a whopping $610 million.
So now the question then would be if allocating this money to ICU beds would have solved Alberta’s problem, and how many ICU beds Alberta could have purchased with money spent on national campaigning.
According to a 2005 American study — which had a large sample size of 51,009 patients aged 18 years or older — researchers found that the mean ICU cost and length of stay were $31,574 USD ($40,386.46 CAD) to $42,570 ($54,451.50 CAD) for roughly 14 days of care for patients requiring mechanical ventilation and $12,931 USD ($16,540.11 CAD) to $20,569 ($26,309.91 CAD) for roughly 9 days of care for patients not requiring mechanical ventilation.
Adjusted to the median, that is $47,418.98 CAD over 14 days, or $3,387.07 CAD per day, for patients requiring mechanical ventilation, and $21,425.01 CAD over nine days, or roughly $2,380.41 per day, for patients not requiring ventilation.
The latter figure for those not requiring ventilation is roughly equivalent to the figure reported by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which found that those requiring hospitalization from COVID-19 in Canada cost approximately $23,000 per stay compared to the above figure of $21,425.01 per stay.
Even when analyzing the most expensive option — which is only used as a last resort — the election could have paid for the total care of roughly 12,864 ICU patients in the most critical condition who need mechanical ventilation.
As of September 19, the Alberta government reported 954 hospitalizations, 216 current ICU patients, and 20,614 active cases.
If the previous data is to be believed and if the current daily ICU patients were consistent throughout the fourth wave of COVID-19, that means that the cost of the federal election could have paid for 833 days worth of ICU patients in Alberta — and that is assuming each of them needs mechanical ventilation.
Thus, it is clear that, had PM Justin Trudeau’s ambition not overridden whatever empathy he has for those being hospitalized in ICUs in Alberta — which he used as a criticism of Conservative governments — Alberta may not be facing a health crisis right now.
