Huge hat tip to William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection for the following ABC report on Canadian health care. Those wanting single payer, I have only one question...why?
Here is an excellent article from Canada about how the Canadian health care system is Imploding!
Please make sure to read the comments. Some of them are quite sobering, like:
Maisie42 wrote:
I, personally, have been waiting a year for a colonoscopy. After the fax was sent to the surgeon, I didn't hear anything for 4 months, then finally saw a doctor 3 months later. I will have the colonoscopy in September almost a year after my family doctor applied to see the specialist. While in hospital for another emergency, I heard of 2 other cases, where the diagnosis had been diverticulitis, but turned out to be cancer of the rectum. These people had only X-rays, which do not show the rectum. Only a surgeon can spot that with a scope-like instrument. Apparently they had not been sent to a specialist! I watch my neighbour Harry limping from his house to car. His knee surgery was cancelled last winter, when the QE2's operating budget was over the limit. He is in his mid 70's and should be enjoying a better quality of life. I believe that maybe a two-tier system is ok, but budgets of hospitals should not be limited in dollars where some people cannot get the operations they need. Instead the budget should depend on the number of patients who receive operations. Health care in Nova Scotia is badly lacking!
I love the following quote at the very end of an AP article that is defending the UK health care system:
British officials acknowledge that their system has been struggling to cope and faces a 15 billion pound ($24 billion) deficit. Hospitals are often overcrowded, dirty and understaffed, which means some patients do not get the care they are promised.
I'm so excited to see government trying to bring us closer to these kinds of health care system. Finally, someone's going to start a line for us to stand in, I was getting tired of just walking in and getting access
4 comments
Why do you think we can't do universal health care better than the British or Canadians?
August 23, 2009 at 2:40 PMFinding people that have had bad experiences in any group is easy. There are millions satisfied with their systems. That doesn't mean the systems are perfect. It only means that there is always room for improvement. My wife and I have been called by doctor's offices numerous times telling us our appointments we made six months to a year ago were cancelled. In your way of thinking CG our system must be awful.
@ Truth - Thanks for stopping by. I've seen your comments on many sites and I appreciate that your comments seem to have a sense of mutual respect.
August 24, 2009 at 8:39 PMWith that said, I respectfully flip your argument on it's head. If you assert that the government can do better than Canada and UK, then I can easily assert the opposite, that our government will do worse.
For example, Canada's government health care is bankrupt and they are single payer, 100% socialized. Our government health care is bankrupt and it only runs 50% of the country's health care. Not a very good resume for taking on more.
I concede that our government could do much better. A big problem we have with our legislators and America is we want everything as long as we don't have to pay for it. So we borrow our way to a decade of false prosperity.
August 26, 2009 at 10:34 PMHere's where I agree with many conservatives. Pay as you go. If no way to fund a program, either through a tax, fee or cut somewhere else is offered, no program.
@ Truth - agreed. I think there is much with the health care debate, we'd come to an agreement on, like Tao in my recent post.
August 27, 2009 at 10:14 AMHowever, one thing I have noticed from those that generally want single payer is that they focus only on how government will fix general problems and forget that there are excellent things in our health system that should be preserved with reform. Like the highest cancer survival rate. WHO has us as number one as far as privacy and focus on the patient. Research in the US accounts for more than half of the world's medical innovations. Single payer would drastically hurt what we do well and with no real guarrantee we'll improve the areas that need improvement.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
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