Isolating the crux of Canada's health care dilemma is like finding Waldo in the picture.

For starters, this is seen as a financial as opposed to a health care issue. It seems almost an afterthought that Minister Philpott was even 'invited to attend'. 

Everybody has a special interest of course, including Tholl who decries chequebook federalism while demanding more cash for his hospitals and care facilities. Holistic medicine is not popular with this crowd; nor do they have any time for holistic approaches to their funding quagmire. 

It would be one thing if there was a proven correlation between the amount spent on health care and positive outcomes. There is not - and that's in large part down to our failure to tackle lifestyle diseases. Prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure.