December
6, 2002
Picture
Three-year block funding for Health Care
Under
the heading "Three-year block funding", one
of the boasts in the "Picture of Health" pamphlet,
page 21, says:
"As
a transition measure, health authorities have been given
the flexibility to balance budgets over two years rather
than one. The health regions are allowed to run deficits
in 2002/03, provided they run equivalent surpluses in
2003/04. For 2004/05 and subsequent years, the health
authorities must balance their budgets each year."
The
former health councils also carried small deficits. On
September 17, 2000, Opposition Health Critic, now Minister
of Health Services, Collin Hansen railed against the government
for the ministry's practice of allowing deficits in one
year to be carried over to the next. It is difficult when
a critic becomes the minister. The record of legislative
debate,
Hansard, often comes back to bite hypocrites.
What's new in the phrase from the "Picture of Health"
pamphlet is that the practice of averaging between years,
making up deficits in the next year, will come to an end
effective April 1, 2004, the beginning of the 2004/05
fiscal year. If the budget remains frozen as the "service
plan" now indicates, any deficit carry over will
amount to a further cut in 2003-04. It also raises questions
on whether Collin Hansen should receive his pay holdback
if spending in his ministry is not fully attributed to
the current fiscal year.
--------
[Thanks
to political pundit and CBC commentator Will McMartin
for bringing this issue to my attention.]
December
5, 2002
Public
Information or Propaganda?
It
takes "courage" for a government that has lost
people's confidence to launch a campaign titled "A
Picture of Health". Gordon Campbell must have a soft
spot for political cartoonists.
In May
Ipsos-Reid found that a solid majority of British Columbians
believe that health and education are in worse shape than
when the BC Liberals were elected. Things haven't gotten
any better in the past six months which probably explains
why the Campbell government is spending tax money on another
health advertising campaign. The record of legislative debate
is full of rants by the Liberals, when they were in opposition,
against advertisements about health initiatives. Premier
Campbell dismisses that hypocrisy by claiming his new campaign
is not advertising. It's just public information.
The
Campbell government could release the communication plan
for both the last and the latest advertising campaigns but
despite my requests under the Freedom of Information Act,
they deny the existence of any records. So much for public
information! The 60 page booklet that forms part of the
"Picture of Health" campaign says that laboratory
services will be restructured in 2003. An honest government
might release the details of the upcoming restructuring
but that would probably be too much public information for
an ad campaign. The "information booklet" repeats
that a restructured Pharmacare program will be based on
family income, but it doesn't say when that will happen,
and it doesn't distinguish between controlling costs and
shifting costs. Fortunately, the Budget Transparency and
Accountability Act requires "service plans" that
provide some real information. The service plan for the
Ministry of Health shows a big cut planned for Pharmacare
next year.
The
government advertising campaign and its 60 page booklet
is big on promises, and short on information. The last page
of the report provides a 1-800 number in case anyone has
unanswered questions. The people who answer those phones
are hard working people just like you and me. They don't
deserve to take any abuse just because they have been hired
to front for a government that has trouble with the truth.
I phoned 1-800-465-4911 and asked where I could get more
information on the changes to laboratory services that are
mentioned on page 27 of the booklet. An operator, who sounded
slightly overloaded, asked me to wait for a moment. When
she returned to the call she took my name and number and
promised that someone would phone me back in a few minutes
with the information.
The
Director of Communications for the Ministries of Health
returned my call several hours after I called the 1-800
number. I mentioned that ten years ago an attempt to consider
changes to laboratory services resulted in a fight back
with cards distributed at laboratories for mailing to MLAs.
Since "more efficient" usually means cutting someone's
job or income, I asked how the "restructuring"
could be "largely invisible to most British Columbians"
since someone is bound to scream. I also asked whether the
Health Sciences Association had been consulted as well as
the private laboratories. The answer was that the restructuring
to take place in the spring may not have been thought through
that far. It was actually suggested that the two paragraphs
in the "Picture of Health" booklet might be all
that currently exists on the topic of lab restructuring.
The
great danger is that the answers I was given on behalf of
the Ministry of Health might be the full truth. Most of
the "Picture of Health" document reads like a
combination of past annual reports and a wish list of what
might happen in the uncertain future. When it gets to solid
topics like measuring results, the booklet says "Establishing
meaningful targets is not easy. It takes time, research
and planning." It would be a good idea if government
established meaningful targets that are supported by the
public before restructuring programs like Pharmacare and
laboratory services. It would be a good idea if the
Ministries of Health provided public information rather
than political propaganda.
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