New provincial health ministers are popping up across the country including in New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia and British Columbia but in Ontario, we're hanging on to David Caplan for a while longer at least.
Why the changing of the guard in other provinces?
Clearly, the provinical health portfolio is a toughy and not for the faint of heart. The complexities of the health care system are vast and attempting to solve one problem undoubtedly ends up with others springing up like bad weeds. There are just so many groups that are accustomed to having their usual share of the pie that creating any kind of unknown such as more options for self-pay just seem to shake the foundations of their existence. This is unfortunate since we do need to boldly go where others have gone already but perhaps with a slight Canadian twist.
Looking at the push for the US to spend over a trillion dollars in the next 10 years on developing a more universal system, the billions we spend here in Canada seem relatively less significant. But careful with this thinking because as a much less populated country with a potentially shrinking tax base we are heading for much more difficult times. This is my way of saying "you ain't seen nothin' yet".
This is quite possibly why we will see provincial health ministers changed on the fly....except in Ontario where we apparently like to keep them around for as long as we can. It helps deflect blame from those at the real helm and changing too quickly could create the appearance of indecision I suppose. But government really has no solutions anyway in my opinion, so maybe it really doesn't matter who gets made the scapegoat in the end as long as somebody takes the fall.
Mary Schryer has taken over from Michael Murphy and she will have her hands full trying to patch up the mess that has been created by the government"s unwillingness to honor its deal with physicians there. The New Brunswick Medical Society has threatened to take the Government to court over its refusal to follow through with the negotiated contract.
Her background is as a financial planner and director on the board for the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation. Sure will be interesting to see if the docs let the government off the hook or if the new Minister can manage to smooth things over. It will be a dangerous precedent if negotiations in good faith stand for nothing.
In Nova Scotia, Maureen McDonald takes on the Health portfolio....a former social work professor at Dalhousie. Evidently, governments shy away from having physicians as health ministers...better to let every other group have a stab at it. Has a physician ever been a Health Minister in Canada? Don't think so.
And last but not least, BC's Kevin Falcon steps into the fire and hits the ground running even if it is with his foot in his mouth. Comments he made about private care have quickly been "clarified" and he speaks of the need for innovation in health care......I hope this doesn't mean just switching to superboards with multi-million dollar deficits as in Alberta....because I have a secret for you: this isn't a solution.
The more things change the more they stay the same and nobody, well almost nobody, has the guts to tell the public that they must have a greater part in making sure we have a strong public health care system which includes allowing more options for self-pay.
New provincial health ministers are popping up across the country including in New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia and British Columbia but in Ontario, we're hanging on to David Caplan for a while longer at least.
Why the changing of the guard in other provinces?
Clearly, the provinical health portfolio is a toughy and not for the faint of heart. The complexities of the health care system are vast and attempting to solve one problem undoubtedly ends up with others springing up like bad weeds. There are just so many groups that are accustomed to having their usual share of the pie that creating any kind of unknown such as more options for self-pay just seem to shake the foundations of their existence. This is unfortunate since we do need to boldly go where others have gone already but perhaps with a slight Canadian twist.
Looking at the push for the US to spend over a trillion dollars in the next 10 years on developing a more universal system, the billions we spend here in Canada seem relatively less significant. But careful with this thinking because as a much less populated country with a potentially shrinking tax base we are heading for much more difficult times. This is my way of saying "you ain't seen nothin' yet".
This is quite possibly why we will see provincial health ministers changed on the fly....except in Ontario where we apparently like to keep them around for as long as we can. It helps deflect blame from those at the real helm and changing too quickly could create the appearance of indecision I suppose. But government really has no solutions anyway in my opinion, so maybe it really doesn't matter who gets made the scapegoat in the end as long as somebody takes the fall.
Mary Schryer has taken over from Michael Murphy and she will have her hands full trying to patch up the mess that has been created by the government"s unwillingness to honor its deal with physicians there. The New Brunswick Medical Society has threatened to take the Government to court over its refusal to follow through with the negotiated contract.
Her background is as a financial planner and director on the board for the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation. Sure will be interesting to see if the docs let the government off the hook or if the new Minister can manage to smooth things over. It will be a dangerous precedent if negotiations in good faith stand for nothing.
In Nova Scotia, Maureen McDonald takes on the Health portfolio....a former social work professor at Dalhousie. Evidently, governments shy away from having physicians as health ministers...better to let every other group have a stab at it. Has a physician ever been a Health Minister in Canada? Don't think so.
And last but not least, BC's Kevin Falcon steps into the fire and hits the ground running even if it is with his foot in his mouth. Comments he made about private care have quickly been "clarified" and he speaks of the need for innovation in health care......I hope this doesn't mean just switching to superboards with multi-million dollar deficits as in Alberta....because I have a secret for you: this isn't a solution.
The more things change the more they stay the same and nobody, well almost nobody, has the guts to tell the public that they must have a greater part in making sure we have a strong public health care system which includes allowing more options for self-pay.