The seemingly never-ending saga of health and social care reform returns to the news on Friday, with last autumn's solution once again in the spotlight. To recap: At present municipalities are largely responsible for providing health and social care. This produces inefficiencies that will become ever more costly as Finland's population gets older and older. Reform is needed but the decision-makers must (according to the constitution) be under some kind of democratic oversight.
This led to the solution proposed last autumn, amid much drama and infighting in the government, that Finland establish 18 elected provincial governments and 15 health and social care authorities to organise, commission and provide services. Now that solution is unravelling, according to a leader in Helsingin Sanomat, as ministers realise that the three authorities without their own 'sote' responsibilities will not, in the end, provide the same democratic oversight as their peers.
That means problems with the constitution, and the government has been quick to complain about the way Finland's basic law interferes with their freedom of action. That's a manufactured moan, according to HS.
"If the constitution allows for three solutions but the government parties choose a fourth way, then the problem is not with the constitution but in ministers' grasp of the situation," wrote HS.
Irresponsible move
HS says those three solutions were outlined by parliament's constitutional law committee when the last 'sote' plan failed: self-governing regions with tax-levying powers, services organised by central government or consortia of municipalities banding together (once tax and representation issues were resolved).
And yet the government ignored that advice and went for a different option--a move Hesari describes as 'irresponsible'.
Ilta-Sanomat dives into the comments made on the government's proposal, looking at who thinks this is a good idea and who doesn't. Small municipalities are keen, bigger ones are not, but overall some 69 percent of local authorities gave positive opinions. That doesn't tell the whole story: those representing 2.47 million people were negative about the proposal, while those representing 2.86 million people were positive.
That hints at the central conundrum. PM Juha Sipilä's image as a rational moderniser clashes somewhat with his party, which is strong in the backwaters and villages of Finland but almost totally unrepresented in the big cities. His party wants to preserve as much of that local power as possible, and reconciling that with a reform that might produce savings is a difficult trick to pull off.
Sipilä's victory last year, when it looked for a time as if the government might fall, was in securing elected provincial governments. It's one of his few victories from a Centre Party perspective, according to Seppo Varjus in IS. National Coalition leader and Finance Minister Alexander Stubb doesn't have a single victory yet, says Varjus, and he cannot leave this matter uncontested.
Sauna tragedy
IS has news of a court decision in a tragic case in which a man passed away in the sauna. He and his girlfriend had used the building's communal sauna at the woman's apartment block, before she left to go to sleep leaving him to enjoy a bit more time in the sauna.
As theirs was the last turn that evening, the doors automatically locked leaving the woman unable to return to the sauna. She came back twice that evening to knock on the door and try to rouse the man, but heard nothing and assumed he had fallen asleep. He had done this before, according to the woman, so she did not call for help.
The next morning she returned once again and, when there was still no response, she called out the building maintenance firm. The man had died in the sauna. The woman was suspected of causing his death by negligence, but the prosecutor finally decided this week not to file charges.
Obama hails Finnish hockey player
There was a minor scandal last year when President Sauli Niinistö invited several sportspeople to the Independence Day ball, but not Kimmo Timonen. The Chicago Blackhawks defenseman retired last year after a 24-year career that saw him win Olympic and World Championship silver medals and, in his last ever game as a pro hockey player, the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks.
This was seen as a bit of a snub from Niinistö, but luckily for Timonen the leader of the free world made some kind of amends this week. Barack Obama traditionally invites championship teams to the White House, and as a Chicago man he was particularly happy to see the Blackhawks. He only mentioned two players by name, but one of them was Timonen. All the Finnish papers covered the story today.
"I want to give the spotlight to two unsung heroes on the team," he said. "They're the kind of guys behind the scenes on every winning team in sports and beyond. Kimmo already had a great career before last season. Had been to the Stanley Cup Final, Olympic final, World Championship final. He had lost them all. … He was traded to Chicago midseason, fought back on the ice, and, in his final NHL game at the age of 40, Kimmo finally hoisted the Cup. As an old guy, that makes me feel good. And it's a sign of a great career that he was able to stick with it and continue to contribute."
You can watch Obama's reception for the Blackhawks here.