Saskatchewan health stakeholders and the 1991-96 wellnesss program

Abstract

Powerful, entrenched health care stakeholders played a major role in limiting the health reform initiative of the Government of Saskatchewan in the 1990s. The politics of the decade was dominated by the fiscal crisis which prompted the government to embark on health care reform at the same times as it limited the scope of the reform. The narrative of Saskatchewan’s health reform efforts showed that the government focused on the politics of health care, specifically the need to manage the diverse and often competing interests of health care stakeholders. It also reveals the dynamic between the stakeholders, the press and public opinion. As health stakeholders expressed their concerns about health care reform, the press and the public became more critical and the government backed away from its commitment to health reform.