Free Health Care...Eventually

There has been a misconception for quite some time that healthcare in America is lagging behind that of other nations. People who watch tabloid television derive the majority of their viewpoints on pertinent issues from people with an obvious axe to grind. Michael Moore is also misleading people regularly, perhaps because he simply doesn’t understand the horrors he seeks to reap.

The left in this country, those who wish to inflict the “single payer system” on us, tell us that our health care system is inhumane and favors the wealthy, which is patently false. What is inhumane is putting one person or one agency in charge of your health. The system delivers quick help for primary care, something voters like, but if one is seriously ill they could die waiting in line.

This leads me to a link a friend sent to me. It has to do with the “free health care” that Canada has to offer. First, it’s an obvious misnomer because even though one can visit the doctor and not have to pay, the fact remains that one has already paid for it through exorbitant taxation. Everyone pays. Second, no one can get a procedure without the approval of the Health Minister, and third, paying out of pocket is not permitted. That would give an unfair advantage to the…”wealthy”. The bottom line is equal misery for all.

Here’s a glaring example. A woman in Ontario had a serious bladder malfunction making it painful or impossible for her to urinate normally. Janice Frazer needed a small device installed to remedy this condition. She was told by her doctor that only twelve such procedures per year were permitted and that she stood at number thirty-two on the waiting list. That left her on an almost three year queue for surgery. To make matters worse, she offered to pay for the surgery and was denied, because medicine is “free” in Canada. To watch her story in her own words (and those of her mother), click here. (She eventually had to have her bladder removed).

An even better example is the case of Lindsay McCreith, also of Ontario. He was suffering from severe headaches and seizures. His doctor suspected a brain tumor and recommended an MRI. He had to wait four months before getting his first MRI! He also wanted to pay for it rather than wait the four months and again, George Smitherman was there to tell them no. What to do?

He went to Buffalo, NY and got his MRI, which determined that he did indeed have a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. He went back to his doctor in Ontario with the MRI results and was told he would have to wait three months just for a consultation with a neurosurgeon and that his surgery would probably be as much as eight months away. So, it was back to Buffalo, where he got the surgery in a week.

The lesson here is this. As bad as it would be to inflict this terrible system on Americans, it also raises an interesting question: Where would Canadians go for lifesaving proceedures if we emulated their system? America is the place people turn to when the need is dire. As Bill Whittle asks, “Go up on deck and take a look at which way the rafts are headed.”

The question that I ask is, do we really want a President or Congress that would wreak this kind of havoc on Americans? Think about this when you go to the polls.
-Woody

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