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Former health minister Louise Simard released the paper "A Saskatchewan Vision for Health(1)" as the blue print for the impending health reform. We know that her reform turned Saskatchewan Health to become the "Mississippi Burning of the Year 1964(2)," and that the most valuable contribution of this paper vision was the reference to the 'on the other hand' definition of health by the World Health Organization. I quote this definition of health as mentioned in the first page of Louise Simard's paper vision:

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. It is the extent to which an individual or group is able, on the one hand, to realize aspirations and satisfy needs, on the other hand, to change or cope with the environment.

So, after spending few million dollars, One-Man Commissioner of Health Ken Fyke has rediscovered this definition of health among the mountains of paper he has accumulated in the course of his health research. In fact, Fyke has recently stated that bigger health budgets may actually undermine people's health. That's because health care spending is putting the squeeze on other programs, such as education, environment, economic development and housing(3).

Congratulations to Ken Fyke for rediscovering the simple whole truth that our health is more than spending more health money.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. A Saskatchewan Vision for Health, The Honourable Louise Simard, Minister of Health, Government of Saskatchewan, August 1992

2. Saskatchewan Health Care: Mississippi Burning of the Year 1964, by Mario deSantis, February 25, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis125/firefighters.html

3. More money won't fix health care: Fyke, CBC Saskatchewan, March 20, 2001 http://sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/03/19/fyke010319