"And now for something completely
different," joked Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall
November 7 in his victory speech after his right-leaning
Saskatchewan Party ousted the NDP from the place they've
held in government since 1991.
Things certainly are changing in
Saskatchewan.
The Roughriders won the Grey Cup
for the first time in 18 years, high oil prices have
been driving an economic boom and now the Saskatchewan
Party has won its first mandate ever.
But according to experts, this
might not be such a big change after all — at least
when it comes to healthcare.
"There wasn't much in their platform
that differentiated them from the NDP," observes Saskatoon-based
health policy analyst Steven Lewis. "During the campaign,
you didn't hear any talks of privatization or anything
that would signal that this would be a major conservative
turn. If that agenda is going to be pursued, it's been
concealed so far."
But former NDP health minister
Len Taylor isn't so convinced. "I'm concerned about
a more private sector approach to healthcare that I
believe the new government is bringing forward," he
says. "I don't have any evidence to speak of because
they are only beginning to approach things, but that
is a concern of mine."
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During the campaign, both the NDP and the Saskatchewan
Party promised to increase the number of healthcare
professionals in the province. The Saskatchewan Party,
for instance, said it would boost the number of med
school seats from 72 to 100. "We commend them for their
efforts, but it's too little, too late," says Dr Joe
Pfeifer, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association.
"By addressing the problem today, we won't have the
solution for eight years so we need to come up with
better creative solutions which includes using other
healthcare professionals to assist the role of doctors."
"We're realizing the dire shortage
of healthcare professionals and acting towards it. This
doesn't happen overnight," says Don McMorris, Saskatchewan's
newly appointed health minister. "Many organizations,
including ourselves, have been calling on the NDP to
start acting instead of just ignoring the problem, which
they've been doing for years. Of course we're now behind
and it's going to take a lot of work to get the support
of the different groups."
PHARMACARE
FLAP
One area where the Saskatchewan Party does differ from
the NDP is their policy on implementing a pharmacare
plan that would allow anyone to purchase any medication
on the formulary at a cost of only $15.
"The biggest problem with that
plan is that it's unsustainable," says Mr McMorris.
Instead, his party will modify the province's current
plan, which provides cheap meds to seniors, by adding
kids under 15 to the plan.
"They say pharmacare is not sustainable
one day and expand it the next," fumes Mr Taylor. "It
just shows that the Saskatchewan Party is there only
for political purposes. They don't have a true understanding
of the healthcare system, the finances of the province
or the needs of Saskatchewan people."
The Saskatchewan Party also plans
to subject seniors to income testing in order to qualify
for the drug plan.
"Now they're income testing for
seniors and they're excluding teenagers from the drug
program," says Mr Taylor. "This doesn't make any sense
to us except trying to gather some political support
from the conservative element in the province."
Prior to the election, the Saskatchewan
Medical Association surveyed patients in order to get
an idea of what their concerns were.
"We never got much of a concern
voiced from the public as to pharmacy provisions," says
Dr Pfeifer. "Nonetheless, affordable, readily available
drugs would be something we would completely support
and endorse."
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