The reaction you may be hearing in the wake of former NDP finance minister Janice MacKinnon's diagnosis of an ailing health-care system seems based on how people feel about Janice MacKinnon. <\/p>\n
Those who are conservative-minded love it when a former New Democrat - one who was once thought to be the logical successor to Roy Romanow, no less - comes around to the thinking that public health care is no longer sustainable ... even though this isn't exactly what Janice MacKinnon is saying in her report advocating health-care payments. <\/p>\n
But angry New Democrats see her recent health report - commissioned by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, which social democrats view as akin to Vancouver's right-wing think tank, the Fraser Institute - as just the latest example of MacKinnon shilling for the interests of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Premier Brad Wall's Saskatchewan Party. <\/p>\n
Adding to the palpable animosity that New Democrats already have towards MacKinnon is the fact that she is now treading on the sacred ground of public health care - a forbidden topic for most New Democrats who don't even distinguish between private health-care delivery (common in our health-care system in the form of dental, chiropractic, prescription drugs, home care, etc,) and private payment (which doesn't exist outside the aforementioned existing private elements of healthcare delivery). <\/p>\n
MacKinnon's study advocated a form of private payment to offset rising costs - most likely, an income-tax surcharge of as much as three per cent of total income. As such, it might be more than just New Democrats displeased with being hit in the wallet. <\/p>\n
That said, there are some very valid points emerging from MacKinnon's study that all of us need to seriously consider. <\/p>\n
The premise of her report is based on the need to address the pending problems of an aging baby boomer generation demanding more of a health system that's already crowding out spending for areas like education. There is no doubt that seniors numbers will be increasing. And there's even less doubt that health-care budgets have sky-rocketed. In Saskatchewan, health costs are now a half-billion dollars more than the entire provincial budget 20 years ago. In the last five years alone under the Brad Wall government, health spending has increased by $1.45 billion, or 45 per cent. <\/p>\n
And notwithstanding the venom the NDP has towards both MacKinnon and privately paid-for health care, she did reject any kind of user fee or applying the additional payments to those who could not afford them. So isn't she proposing a valid solution to a valid problem? Well, not according to one expert who has extensively studied this issue. <\/p>\n
University of Regina head of political science Tom McIntosh - who served on the Romanow commission last decade - thinks MacKinnon has made the wrong diagnosis followed by the wrong prescription. <\/p>\n
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Read more here:<\/p>\n
MANDRYK: MacKinnon misdiagnosed health care<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The reaction you may be hearing in the wake of former NDP finance minister Janice MacKinnon's diagnosis of an ailing health-care system seems based on how people feel about Janice MacKinnon. Those who are conservative-minded love it when a former New Democrat - one who was once thought to be the logical successor to Roy Romanow, no less - comes around to the thinking that public health care is no longer sustainable ... even though this isn't exactly what Janice MacKinnon is saying in her report advocating health-care payments Continue reading