Who's Playing God!!

I’m writing this on Good Friday – I felt it appropriate.

Since the global financial crisis and the demise of the finance company industry, government has legislated.

The financial markets authority is now the regulatory body responsible for setting and ruling on standards by which participants must offer and transact business.  Suppliers (products) -Intermediaries (advisers).

Obviously the politicians felt the need to save the public from either themselves or from the people providing them with products and services.  Unfortunately the bureaucrats (as they always do – no matter what colour the coat) are taking to their role with a high level of importance and enthusiasm.

The objective, from a regulators point of view, was to improve standards of advice and service.  As my rant on the medical profession portrays – that does not necessarily follow.

The outcome in financial services is two fold.

1. The consumer will pay more for advice.  Advisers will pass on the cost of compliance or;
2. The consumer will seek an alternative, cheaper source of product, they will shop online. Taking no advice.

The winners – banks, fund managers, insurance companies.

The losers – the public, the taxpayers and ultimately, retirees and claimants.

But that’s not my beef.  Businesses adapt to changing circumstances – whether political, economic, social, technological or environmental.  Simply part of a formal risk management strategy – at corporate and SME level.  That’s why there are boards, advisory teams and strategic planning.

Which brings me to the ‘Who’s playing God’ topic.  There are 20 District Health Boards in NZ, each governed by a board of up to 11 members.  They are responsible for strategic direction (just like a company board). The DHBs fund health services in their districts. Hospitals are owned and funded by DHBs. They are funded primarily out of general taxation and driven by the Ministry of Health (advised by a plethora of bureaucrats – ministry personnel, National Health Board, Health Workforce NZ, National Health committee and other ministry advising committees).

So how are they doing with this powerhouse of personnel and annual publicly funded resource of billions NZD?

Are the advisers (doctors) better now than when you were a child?

Are the public hospitals more operationally efficient, obliging and well resourced?

How about the statistics.  We must be saving more people?

Wrong!!

I was born in 1949.  (I only have stats up to 2009).

Cancer registrations have increased 550%.  Equal male and female.  Yes in 60 years – when we have sent a man to the moon, created more computing power in a hand held device than was used to bring the men back from outer space, and the S&P500 index (growth in US capital markets) has grown from 19 to 1,864.

In that time frame cancer deaths have increased 330% in NZ as has the incidence in diabetes, over 500,000 New Zealanders are on blood pressure medication and over  500,000 medicated for depression, anxiety and bipolar.

So we regulate the financial services industry?!  People are not dying because of poor financial advice but they sure are from poor medical advice and or service – or from the drugs they are consuming.

Where does the buck stop.  Well pretty obviously the medical profession and governments world wide are manipulated by the healthcare sector (namely drug companies).  In US, three of the top 20 companies by market cap are drug companies – namely Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer and Merck.  Internationally, four of the top 20 companies by market cap are drug companies.  Two are Swiss (Roche and Novartis), one French (Sanofi) and one British (Glaxo Smith Kline) – and between them they can’t find a cancer cure.  Who’s kidding who here.

Meanwhile governments are funding their health boards (remember NZ has 20 of them) and Health Boards are funding Hospitals and Doctors.  Doctors are prescribing more and more of the pharmaceutical products meanwhile the public is conned into believing the drug companies have a ‘wellness’ purpose.

The combined market capitalisation of the seven pharmaceutical companies within the top 20 worldwide is $1,261 billion USD.  What a racket.

Meanwhile back home, depending on the size of the DHBs and their funding allocation, resources are redistributed.  Support services vary from district to district and of course many of the doctors alternate between public and private hospitals.  Imagine the uproar if our police, army, teachers and ministry administrators each did moonlighting in the private sector.

Or the health food or organics industry had their products subsidised (like most of the products prescribed by the medical profession).

What pains me is not the reaction to regulation but the experiences I see from clients, family and friends as they undergo various outcomes from health services in the different regions and the horrific increasing ratios of serious ill health, at all ages and life stages.  I accept lifestyle health issues as being the responsibility of individuals (1,000,000 NZ’s are obese = 28%) and smoking (Maori 41% - unchanged) with cardio vascular being our leading cause of death – but depression, anxiety and many forms of cancer, we need alternative thought, debate and action.  The cigarette companies have felt the wrath of consumer repugnance – the time has come to demand standards, ethics and values from health providers across the board.

The information provided in this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. You may seek appropriate personalised financial advice from a qualified professional to suit your individual circumstances.