permafrost Loc: Minnesota

It would seem that big pharma and the owners of medical care and medical insurance are also big winners.

Darn that means the only losers are the American citizens..

coincidence??,,, we are also the only industrialized nation which does not have a national health care plan..

son of witless

The relevance of my point is this. We are discussing the problem of Finland's Socialist Health Care system. The side I agree with points to yet another failure of Socialism, whereas your side declares that Finlamd's problem is not Socialism, but an aging population. Okay. So I brought up Japan because as far as I can tell they have the oldest population on earth. I believe their's is also a Socialist Medical system and it has not collapsed. Not yet, anyway.

So if Japan has an even older population than Finland and both have Socialist Health Care, perhaps Japan has figured out solutions that would work in Finland, or maybe Japan has unique factors which cannot be duplicated elsewhere.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Perhaps Japan has, if you find some, please post it..

As for Finland, as I see it we were discussing that the Govt which resigned could not agree to the compromises needed to make the program work. not the program itself..

Again, the out going government was right leaning, not socialist..

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

I never seen it. Not even of FOX!

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

The difference is Finland does not make Lexus cars or Sony TV's.

son of witless

Did the Right Leaning Government create the program, or did it inherit it ? Just as in Amerika, once you give the Publik free stuff it can be impossible to take it back. Perhaps the Right Leaning Guvment, inherited the program, could not eliminate it, could not politically convince the publik to endure the painful steps to reform it, and therefore quit.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

That is a good question. I could not find any thing about dates or which parties involved but this shows it was the policy for some time..

Seems the need for reform was pretty much agreed on, but the how-to was the devil..




https://www.politico.eu/article/finlands-government-collapses-over-failed-health-care-reform/

Sipilä resigned a month ahead of Finland's parliamentary e******n | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

Finland’s government collapses over failed health care reform
PM Juha Sipilä resigns.

By ELINE SCHAART, LILI BAYER AND KATIE JENNINGS 3/8/19, 9:47 AM CET Updated 4/19/19, 1:13 AM CET
Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipilä resigned Friday morning, one month ahead of an e******n.

"The social welfare and health care reform was one of our government's most important objectives," Sipilä said at a press briefing. "The snapshot of the situation that I got from the parliament obliged me to examine if there was a possibility of continuing the reform process. There wasn't."

My conclusion was that my government had to hand in our note of resignation," he added. "I take my responsibility."

Finland has a decentralized system of health and social welfare programs, where much of the administration is left to local municipalities. This arrangement has led to widespread geographic variation when it comes to quality and access to health care services.

The reform was meant to address these inequalities and reduce the growing cost of the country's health care system, which has come under increasing stress from an ageing population. It included centralization of the administration at a regional level.

Last month, Sipilä spoke to POLITICO about the “very difficult” social and health care changes, calling them the country’s “biggest reform since the Second World War.”

“The publicity and discussion and debate during the process we have had in Finland, it has been painful, and it shows that people are afraid of change,” he said.

There has been general agreement among political parties of the need to reform the system. However, the parties differ when it comes to the finer details, which has led to the current impasse.



Sipilä’s Center Party had agreed to some reforms pushed for by the center-right National Coalition Party that would allow for more privatization of health care services, but this move was fiercely opposed by the left-leaning and Green parties, Laura Kalliomaa-Puha, a professor of social welfare law at Tampere University, said.

“It has been politically extremely difficult,” Kalliomaa-Puha said.

“Prime Minister Sipilä will request to resign because the health care reform cannot be accomplished during this government term,” Antti Kaikkonen, the head of Sipilä’s Center Party’s parliamentary group wrote on Twitter. He added: "If anyone asks what political responsibility means, then I would say this is an example of that."

According to local media, President Sauli Niinistö asked Sipilä to remain in office as a caretaker PM until an April 14 parliamentary e******n.

son of witless

I think that since the left believes this program can be salvaged, that they should be given the chance. The l*****ts were successful in blocking the Center Right Party in it's reforms, I would sit back allow the whole thing to collapse totally. The L*****ts reforms will likely hasten that considerably.