Last week, the government put two IHC companies into statutory management after they indicated that they would not be able to pay staff wages owed as a result of a court case. Today in Parliament, health minister Tony Ryall was asked repeatedly whether the government would stump up the money to rescue those companies and ensure their staff could be paid. His response - repeated several times - was that "the liability lies with the provider". In other words, the government is going to refuse to pay up, let these companies go bankrupt, and throw their clients out on the street.
The government is pretending it doesn't have the money to do otherwise. Bullshit. As with their cuts to ECE, this is simply a question of priorities. And as there, National has decided that tax cuts to the elite few and ETS subsidies to their farmer mates come before essential health services for the disabled. And that's National in a nutshell: screwing the many to give more to the few.
