If Canada’s System is So Great, Then Why…
July 2, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, President, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston, Welfare | 1 Comment
-By Warner Todd Huston
The left continually holds up the Canadian socialized healthcare system as the best example, one we should strive to emulate. But as each week passes we find more and more reason to doubt the panacea in the Great White North.
Last week news came out that Canada forced an infant to flee its country and into our own to get life saving treatment. A baby was born 13 weeks premature in Ontario, Canada but there were no neonatal intensive care beds open for the child there.
Canada’s perfectly planned and cost-effective system had no room at the inn for Ava, who of necessity had to be sent across the border to a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital to suffer under our chaotic and costly system. She had no time to be put on a Canadian waiting list. She got the care she needed at an American hospital under a system President Obama has labeled “unsustainable.”
This week comes another puncture in the claim that Canada’s healthcare is the perfect system to copy. Lately Canada ha seen a boom in private healthcare businesses.
Facing long waits and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing to pay for treatment.
“Any wait time was an enormous frustration for me and also pain. I just couldn’t live my life the way I wanted to,” says Canadian patient Christine Crossman, who was told she could wait up to a year for an MRI after injuring her hip during an exercise class. Warned she would have to wait for the scan, and then wait even longer for surgery, Crossman opted for a private clinic.
If the nationalized system was so perfectly balanced, why would this be?
Of course, one of Canada’s main problems is a shortage of doctors. This is a problem that has also appeared in Massachusetts where a universal healthcare insurance plan was adopted in 2006.
The simple fact of the matter is that the more people that are suddenly covered for little or no costs to them on a per visit basis, the more people there will be that will be clamoring for care. This wouldn’t be such a problem if there were a consequent number of new doctors to handle the growing patient load.
Unfortunately, a nationalized healthcare policy necessarily “holds down costs” and these “costs” must end up being a determination of just how much money a doctor can make per year. The single fact that doctors will see a government mandated cap on their wages will cause folks that might have chosen the medical profession to train for other jobs. The huge costs and investment of time in learning their craft will be seen as not worth all the effort and, therefore, fewer people will chose the medical field.
It’s a fact of life that has been seen in every single country that has tried nationalized healthcare. The more people that get cheap or free coverage, the fewer doctors there are.
It may seem wonderful that “everyone” is covered. But if they die before they can even get seen by a doctor due to packed schedules, what good is the “coverage”?
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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