Supporters of big government – on the progressive left and paternalistic right – have parroted the line that “there are no libertarians in a pandemic”, only to offer platitudes and inconsistent policies that have done little but restrict individual freedoms. There are alternatives to authoritarian COVID-19 policy based on two foundational libertarian principles: individual autonomy and personal responsibility..Libertarians believe the individual has total autonomy over their own body. We are thus strongly opposed to vaccine mandates and believe that no one should lose their job for refusing to get the shot, nor should they have to endure discrimination and other forms of coercion. But personally (and I emphasize, personally), I am a strong proponent of vaccines. I have all the childhood vaccines, I get my flu shot every year, I asked my doctor for the HPV vaccine, I received two shots of COVID vaccine at the earliest opportunity, and I look forward to getting (another) COVID-19 booster along with my next flu shot in the new year..Albertans traditionally consider themselves as champions of personal responsibility, but Alberta’s “free” universal healthcare system imposes few costs on people who needlessly burden the system. Hesitancy over side effects combined with the belief that “if things get bad, we can go to the [free] hospital” can form a powerful moral hazard. There’s no incentive for personal responsibility..The government should never force anyone to take a drug or undergo a medical procedure, but people also shouldn’t feel entitled to a “free” stay in the ICU next time they get strep throat because of a Facebook-induced amoxicillin phobia..If Ottawa allowed the provinces to innovate with European-style universal healthcare options – including individual mandates for private insurance – then risk factors like vaccination status could be individually priced. As it currently stands, these factors primarily apply to employer-provided supplemental insurance..Employers shouldn’t be allowed to fire the unvaccinated, but unvaccinated employees shouldn’t feel entitled to the same employer-provided supplemental health and life insurance benefits as their vaccinated coworkers. Smokers must settle for less generous plans and/or pay more out of their own paychecks for group benefits. The insurance industry should be allowed to ask about vaccination status and price their plans accordingly..So, what could a principled Alberta health policy look like? I propose two solutions: a refundable ICU premium and an enacted pandemic triage protocol..A refundable ICU premium would resemble other provincial health premiums but would differ as the vaccinated would receive a $500 refundable rebate. To keep things fair and affordable to low-income Albertans, the premium would be progressive and based on household income quintiles. The lowest quintile would pay nothing, the second-lowest would pay $250 per person per year, the middle quintile would pay $500, the upper-middle $750, and the top quintile would pay $1000 per person per year..As all vaccinated Albertans would be eligible for the same $500 refund, Albertans in the lower two quintiles would make money from being vaccinated. A vaccinated low-income family of four would see a net benefit of $2000 per year while a vaccinated high-income family would get half of their ICU premiums refunded..If every Albertan gets vaccinated, then the program refunds every cent collected. If it fails to move the vaccination rate above the current 85%, then the ICU premium will generate about $330 million in annual tax revenue that can go towards expanding our ICU capacity..The UCP government is telling us new restrictions and the cancelation of New Year’s Eve gatherings were to protect ICU capacity and prevent the implementation of a triage protocol. With billions of dollars spent, where is the expansion in ICU and triage capacity?.At the outbreak of the Second World War, the US Army had only 12,000 nurses. Army leaders designed a four-week training course for experienced civilian nurses who joined the military, a six-month course to train nurse anesthetists in cutting edge treatments, and worked with universities to cut the time it took to earn a nursing degree in half while subsidizing tuition and guaranteeing jobs for students who promised to enlist. When the US Army concluded the program, it had trained over 150,000 new nurses..By now the Kenney government should have had enough time to procure all the equipment and manpower required for triage facilities. With triage centres open, the government should immediately enact triage protocols and transfer the willfully unvaccinated to these facilities. This would return ICU capacity to normal and restore hope to all the Albertans who watched in horror as their life-saving surgeries were delayed or canceled by ICU overcrowding..To those who claim that anything less than ICU care is denying healthcare, consider how I wrote “all the equipment.” These triage facilities would have oxygen, ventilators, IV drips, modern drugs, proper hospital beds, personal protective equipment, as well as doctors and nurses. Yes, it would lack all the bells and whistles of a modern big city hospital, but it would offer care comparable to a modern Canadian Army field hospital..An unvaccinated Albertan would receive far better care in a triage centre than an American billionaire could have purchased during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The vaccinated Albertans who died from curable illnesses after years of surgery delays are the ones who were truly denied healthcare..We live in a time of fantastic advances in medical technology, and politicians making policy based on the whims of pollsters. It’s time for a principled and consistent COVID policy built on individual autonomy and personal responsibility..Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist for the Western Standard
