The Government of Alberta under Ralph Klein has asked a reasonable question: can health care be better provided partly as a private, for-profit product rather than as a not-for-profit public service? But-despite the claims of advocates for market-driven medicine-private hospitals are neither cheaper nor more efficient than public ones. Clear Answers summarizes the huge body of evidence showing that they are more expensive and less efficient.

Kevin Taft never thought he?d be a politician. A public policy analyst and head of his own Edmonton-based consulting company, Kevin's life took a sharp turn when he returned to Alberta in 1994 after a year away studying for a business degree.?Alberta had changed,? he recalls. “The government was gutting our health care system without a plan, throwing people's lives into chaos.? Kevin watched in growing dismay as the government took aim at education and other public services Albertans had carefully built over many years.In 1997, Kevin wrote Shredding the Public Interest, a national bestseller which confirmed many Albertans? concerns about the PCs. Clear Answers, a second bestseller in 2000, co-authored by Gillian Steward, exploded the myths of private, for-profit health care.Kevin stepped into public life in 2001, handily winning his Edmonton Riverview seat in the provincial election. In 2004, he was elected Leader of the Alberta Liberals and of the Loyal Opposition in the Alberta Legislature. In 2007 his third book was published, Democracy Derailed, and in 2012 his fourth book, Follow the Money, which he co-authored with Mel MacMillan and Junaid Jahangir. Both books continue Kevin's critical analysis of Alberta politics and public policy. Kevin stepped down from the Legislature when he chose not to run in the 2012 election. He continues to live and write in Edmonton.

Kevin Taft's profile page

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column appears every other week.

Gillian Steward's profile page

".it (Clear Answers) succeeds in making the reader a more informed, and critical, consumer of health-care services in Canada." Marilyn Mardiros, CBRA

"an important book for Alberta's future and the more people who read it, the more discussion there will be about health care." Charles Rusnell, Edmonton Journal

"Clear Answers is indeed clear, both in its intent and its content. It's timely as well and not just in Alberta. Klein's push for private health care could well be the thin edge of the wedge for Saskatchewan and across the country." Verne Clemence, The StarPhoenix