What are the symptoms of our ailing health care system? Long waiting lists, hospital closures, nursing shortages escalating costs and the exodus of our brightest health professionals to the United States. Saskatchewan is not immune from these problems either. The closure of the Plains Health Centre, the longest waiting lists in Canada, and the recent nurses strike are all symptoms of our provincial malaise.

The 1999 federal budget has been called the "Health Budget" because it will put back $3.5 billion next year. This appears to be a very generous move on the part of the government, but we can not forget that since 1993, over $21 billion was taken out of our health care system—a reduction that seriously affected the quality of medical services in Canada.

Listening to individual stories that come into my office would convince anyone with a heart that we need change. Rather than a lengthy wait for an appointment in Saskatchewan, a 75-year-old farmer decided to go to Minot, North Dakota to have an MRI. The MRI identified he had a brain tumour. The farmer decided to have his treatment done immediately at the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis instead of risking death while on a waiting list in Saskatchewan.

So, what are the solutions to our health care crisis? The first step needs to be funding that is not hidden in the complicated Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). Health care funding should be clear and direct as well as stable, visible and indexed to inflation and the ageing population.

The focus of our health care system has to change from a system that is driven by politicians, bureaucrats and the medical profession to one where the patient comes first. If not, our health care system will suffer a cardiac arrest.

Several other simple changes could potentially breathe new life into Canada’s health care system. Making patients and potential health care users aware of the costs could help. Attitudes would change. Procedures would likely change as people come to understand the implications of their choices and their doctor’s decisions. Would someone use the emergency room if they knew it cost $200, whereas a visit to a doctor’s office may be only $40?

If we use the above suggestion together with "medical savings accounts", I believe we may see improvements. Medical savings accounts can be best described as money set-aside by government for every Canadian. If $1000 were deposited to a special account, it would give each one of us an incentive to carefully manage that money. If costs went above this amount, of course, that would be completely covered. Anything not spent could be put towards alternative therapies, or a retirement savings plan or other suitable strategies.

Did you know Cuba, North Korea and Canada are the only countries in the world with government funding of health care that don’t allow choice? Why don’t we allow supplementary insurance?

I am quite optimistic about the future of our health care system, if we can get away from the fear that any changes to medicare are detrimental. Political correctness has hindered discussion about health care changes in Canada. If you believe we must have change, I would apprec