Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Lorne Gunter, writing at Canada's London Free Press, describes one absurdity of Canada's universal health care system: the criminalization of providing for your own needs. Think of it as end-stage Obamacare.
Canada's prohibition against buying private medical insurance is unconscionable in a democracy. Health care is a legal product. Why then is it illegal for Canadians to spend their own after-tax dollars to buy insurance for faster or better care than the government-run health monopoly is able to provide?
A quick thumb through any Marxist reader provides the answer: achieving utopia requires "equality," which in leftist practice means conformity and uniformity. Better failing public schools for all than some good schools benefiting a few (while not incidentally embarrassing the administrators responsible for the many). Similarly, universally poor "coverage" is preferred to the timely delivery of medical care to some of those in need.
Think I overstate the case? Consider the plight of two Albertans who recently filed suit to overturn Canada's ban on private health insurance:
Both Allen and Cross (the two patients who will serve as test cases) suffered from severe back pain that kept them from working. Both were confined to bed or the floor while awake and both were informed it would take a year or more to see a specialist for tests to determine whether they were candidates for surgery and another year for surgery if they were deemed worthy. Unwilling to suffer that long and to be absent from their lives for years, both men opted for surgery in the United States and both were denied reimbursement for their costs by Alberta's Out-of-Country Health Services Committee.
So it is possible to achieve universal healthcare coverage while "bending the cost curve." You are bound to like the result, provided God grants you robust good health in perpetuity. And the system is so fair and equitable, so uniformly bureaucratic and unfeeling, that it seems churlish not to rush headlong into implementing President Obama's version in the US.
You can see what a gerbil wheel we Canadians are on: We are required to get care from our bureaucratic provincial health monopolies, which often are incapable of providing us with the new hips or heart valves or cancer treatments we need. But rather than face the fact that universal health care is not the warm, fuzzy ideal we are told it is, our politicians would rather see us die on waiting lists-- or at the very least suffer reduced quality of life for years and years until our top-heavy health administrations eventually grind out some sort of relief long after the medically desirable due date.
The next time a liberal starts expounding on the delights of "equality" and "fairness," you may wish to probe a bit. Definitions matter.
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Comments:
Jun '12
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Some of us have been pounding this drum for years.
The only possible chance of reversing it is to unelect Obama, which means voting for Romney.
Not voting for Romney means voting for this coming to America.
Dec '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
George,
You are so right on the mark.
After 70 years of Marxist Totalitarian Dictatorship, in Moscow, the largest and capitol city, you could not purchase a decent pair of shoes or a decent apple at the most prestigious store in the Soviet Union, GUM.
Does this give anyone an idea of what Health Care would become as a State monopoly.
Regards,
Jim
Jun '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
If you're in North Dakota, how do you find the nearest hospital?
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Find a car with a plate like this, going South, and follow:
Jun '12
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Mel Foil: If you're in North Dakota, how do you find the nearest hospital?
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Find a car with a plate like this, going South, and follow: · 3 minutes ago
Mel, you owe me a new laptop keyboard and monitor.
You need to warn people about having liquids in their mouth when they read that comment! :D
Jun '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
ConservativeWanderer
Mel Foil: If you're in North Dakota, how do you find the nearest hospital?
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Find a car with a plate like this, going South, and follow: · 3 minutes ago
Mel, you owe me a new laptop keyboard and monitor.
You need to warn people about having liquids in their mouth when they read that comment! :D · 6 minutes ago
It's funny because it's pretty much true. I drove past a Fargo hospital once, I think on a Saturday, and saw lots of Canadian plates. I'm guessing most of them were visitors, but I don't think they were visiting Americans.
May '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Here's another true story of Canadian health care: A woman in her mid-to-late 50s suffers from degeneration in both knee joints. She has to walk with aid of crutches and braces. The problem can be successfully remedied by bilateral joint replacement surgery, providing her with decades of mobility to come.
The Health Service has told her that she is too young for the surgery, since the new joints will wear out before the likely date of her demise, and she will need another set. That would be too expensive. So, she hobbles around on crutches, in pain, while her remaining years of life shrink to an amount acceptable to the government.
Too old for cancer treatment, too young for new joints. Wonder what medical treatments we will actually be allowed to have, once the wise and mighty Feds are in complete control?
Jun '12
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Mel Foil
ConservativeWanderer
Mel Foil: If you're in North Dakota, how do you find the nearest hospital?
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Find a car with a plate like this, going South, and follow: · 3 minutes ago
Mel, you owe me a new laptop keyboard and monitor.
You need to warn people about having liquids in their mouth when they read that comment! :D · 6 minutes ago
It's funny because it's pretty much true. I drove past a Fargo hospital once, I think on a Saturday, and saw lots of Canadian plates. I'm guessing most of them were visitors, but I don't think they were visiting Americans. · 38 minutes ago
I know, I live in another northern border state. It's amazing how many Canadian plates you see in the parking lots of the major city's hospitals.
Oct '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
I don't quite understand. Universal healthcare doesn't automatically imply socialized medicine; if states allowed true catastrophic care plans (and implemented other pro-market reforms), healthcare would be affordable for pretty much everyone; universal coverage could very well happen under those conditions.
Universal coverage is a separate issue from healthcare reform. We can have universal healthcare in a market-oriented, sparsely-regulated private system. It need not imply socialized medicine.
Semantics aside, it is definitely true that if the left implemented a socialized single-payer system, they would ban private insurance.
Sep '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
George,
Shall I leave the honor to you or would you like to share with your American and Canadian audiences which Canadian citizens are exempt from this ban?
Well, ok, if you insist:
Allow me to reiterate: Federal prisoners.
Edited on July 16, 2012 at 2:21amMar '11
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
I need help. I lived in Canada for many years. Before I left in '07 I seem to recall a Supreme Court ruling on a case in Quebec which, in effect, said it was legal to seek medical care outside of the government health care system. I assumed it was for all of Canada, but from what I recall of it's complex status within Canada, maybe it only applied to Quebec. Any Canadians on Ricochet willing to clarify this for me?
Nov '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
I recently watched my wife die of cancer in our (Canadian) system, observing key failures (which I have detailed elsewhere here) of the system that likely contributed to her early death, I'll second much of what is said here. I appreciate Pseudodionysius' contribution; there is much hypocrisy to be found in our system ... I'll also mention the Provincial premier well-known for his opposition to so-called "two tier" medicine, who was put on a waiting list for extremely urgent heart surgery -- and opted to fly to the U.S. instead, to get it done right away. Claimed he didn't see any inconsistency in his action.
Americans should be careful in comparing medical systems and considering the larger role of the U.S. open-market medicine, internationally. First, Canada does not have "nationalized" health care: This is a provincial mandate, and the feds have no jurisdiction. Each province's system is a bit different. Compare to Romneycare if you like, but not to ObamaCare. There are other notable differences.
Consider this: if ObamaCare survives, where will Canadians go for urgent procedures when our system fails? Nor will you have any such safety valve.
Nov '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
(Isthatmothra: you're right, things differ provincially, esp. between Quebed and the ROC).
Oh heck, while I'm on the toadstool I'll share another anecdote. I have sleep apnea. Trouble is, you can't get on a CPAP machine or get surgery done until proper diagnosis is made, via a sleep study.
Now all of the above is insured in Manitoba. So far so good. But for sleep studies, when I entered the province 14 years ago, they had one facility with one (or was it two?) beds -- an order of magnitude smaller than demand for the diagnostic. Apparently a cost-saving measure. Although a sleep study center is relatively inexpensive to equip and man, seems someone decided that constraining the flow of patients into ongoing care would save money. I was told it would be up to two years before I could be put on a waiting list, and then perhaps another two years.
Primary care workers learned to game the system, and would fly patients to Ontario or the U.S.; the province had to pay for the procedure at premium rates, plus airfare, food and hotel. I got mine done in Ontario in about 2 months.
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Isthatmothra, the article I cited in my post states that the Quebec ruling only applies to that province. Apparently, for similar relief nationwide aggrieved patients will need to pursue litigation province-by-province.
Edited on July 16, 2012 at 4:31amMar '11
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
My question was actually answered in the first link by Lorne ( A truly Canadian first name) Gunter in the London Free Press. Yes, the Supreme Court ruling applies only to Quebec. I hope the Alberta challenge is successful in getting the same ruling, opening the door for other provinces. One of the problems is that for a lot of Canadians, government funded health care is what defines them as Canadians! Kind of a head-scratcher when you think of all the other countries that have socialized medicine. But it's very important for them to have a more "compassionate", single carrier system than those social Darwinist Yanks.
Oct '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
A preview of America without Republicans--it's called California.
And Obamacare, if not repealed will accelerate it.
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
John Marzan: A preview of America without Republicans--it's called California.
And Obamacare, if not repealed will accelerate it. · 39 minutes ago
Sobering. Conn Collins's column is depressing but accurate.
The culture in California has shifted in a fascinating way. When I moved here in the late 80s the zeitgeist was standard American: party in power messing up? Vote the rascals out and give the other guys a turn. Now, a steady drumbeat of vilification by liberal politicians, educators, entertainers, reporters--virtually everybody--has made voting Republican, for whatever reason, nearly inconceivable for many of my coworkers and neighbors. I may not like Obama's performance, but I am a smart, compassionate, non-racist person, so I need to vote Democratic, the thinking goes, or would if any actual reasoning was involved. Instead, this is pretty much a California reflex nowadays, which is why the Dems have gone national with the politics of character assassination.
May '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
I lived in California in 82-83 then again in 90-97. I left without ever looking back. I think some combination of sunlight and low barometric pressure combines to cause a dementia in most long term inhabitants. A land blessed with endless beauty and resources cursed by its occupants.
Dec '10
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
Alberta has shorter waiting times for surgery than most other provinces.
A few anecdotes. 4 month wait for colonoscopy (which you don't get unless you have symptoms. 6 month wait for cardiac diagnosis. Year long wait to remove and repipe a shunt from the bladder.
These are what I and my friends have experienced. The reality is that if I trash my knee or something non life threatening that makes it difficult or impossible to work, I'm further ahead paying out of pocket, getting things sorted out and back to work than wait for the government system to get around to it.
I like asking pompous Canadians a simple question; How do waiting lists save money?
Sep '11
Re: Look to Canada for The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come
This is very sobering for someone like me, generally in good health (poor diet-- the usual, but ok), but tend toward "health crises" -- post-polio syndrome, so 2 hip replacements before 50, a brain aneurysm (I know, I should be dead), bleeding ulcers (ditto), and I forget what else (the equivalent of a frontal lobotomy makes one forgetful...), so how many times would I be dead in Canada? my (very excellent) emergency brain surgery cost me something like $10,000 in extra expenses, copays, and lost income, and I think I got off very lucky.