The Social Democratic Party is concerned about the future of Finland’s public services, after hearing of the government’s compromise model for social welfare and health care reform. The party’s parliamentary chair says there are also lingering constitutional worries.
Shortly after one in the morning Saturday, the government announced that it had finally reached accord on the structure of reforms to the Finnish social welfare and health care system. In an effort to save three billion euros in costs, the model proposes that the current system of over 200 autonomous municipal administrations be replaced with 18 large self-governing regions.
Just 15 of these regions would administer social and health services autonomously, while the three remaining regions will join with others to manage the services jointly.
Freedom of choice isn’t all it seems
One component of the new plan is the so-called “freedom of choice” prerogative, whereby customers will be able to choose freely between public, private or third-party services.
In a telephone interview aired on Yle’s morning programme Saturday morning, Social Democratic Chair Rinne said the introduction of a private option as an equal alternative is a bad move.
“What concerns me is that we are now in the process of building a system that will lead to private sector dominance in the field. In the long run, this will mean that people’s wealth and income will influence the availability of services,” he said.
Fellow opposition party the Left Alliance’s Chair Paavo Arhinmäki went even further on Saturday, saying that the freedom of choice component is the privatisation scheme that has long been the ultimate goal of the conservative National Coalition Party.
Political horse trading
SDP’s Parliamentary Chair Antti Lindtman immediately called for an independent investigation into the impact of the proposed social welfare and health care model.
“What will happen with the funding, and how will authority be distributed in the jointly administered regions? Where will the promised three billion in savings come from? This is all necessary information if we wish to make an accurate assessment. The government should not be afraid to ask independent researchers to review this new model,” he said in a statement.
He says it appears to him that the government’s post-midnight agreement contained a great deal of political horse trading.
“The National Coalition Party got its privatisation of services and the Centre Party sold the public health system in the bargain. In return, the NCP helped the Centre Party strengthen its hold on provincial power. The Finns Party managed to avoid early elections,” Lindtman said.
Constitutional concerns won’t go away
He predicts that the model will run into constitutional problems again, as a confused administrative structure and a muddled funding premise won’t meet the constitution’s municipal autonomy requirements. He says that at least six regions have unclear management under the current model.
The reform ran up against constitutional restrictions several times already during the term of the last government, causing the previous administration to abort the effort.
Lindtman finds the situation sad and concerning. He says that were the Social Democrats were in power, the search to provide the best services would be paramount.
“For a long time now, the dispute over social welfare and health care reform has had little to do with the service levels that would be provided. Instead, it has become a vehicle for players to promote their varying political aspirations.”