Canada’s health care?
Next time someone tells you how great health care is in Canada, show them this article.
Dr. David Gratzer, a physician and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute wrote this absolute “must read” in the June 9, 2009 Wall Street Journal. As someone who was born and raised in Canada, Dr. Gratzer provides a unique perspective of what we will face in this country should Obama’s grand socialistic plan come to fruition. And, please pay particular attention to the editorial “cartoon” within the article. It says it all, and far more graphically than I could.
Born and raised in Canada, I once believed that government health care is compassionate and equitable. It is neither. My views changed in medical school. Yes, everyone in Canada is covered by a “single payer” — the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system.
Here is an example of why Dr. Gratzer has changed his mind.
Sylvia de Vries, an Ontario woman, had a 40-pound fluid-filled tumor removed from her abdomen by an American surgeon in 2006. Her Michigan doctor estimated that she was within weeks of dying, but she was still on a wait list for a Canadian specialist.
Canadians with serious medical issues are coming to the United States for treatment. And, yes, they have to pay the full cost of the treatment, but, they are alive.
The Canadian government has realized there is a problem. So, while Obama is racing head long into a system that will ultimately cause thousands of untimely deaths in this country per year, Canada, and other countries are moving away from a single payer, government run health care system.
In Canada, private-sector health care is growing. Dr. Day estimates that 50,000 people are seen at private clinics every year in British Columbia… a private clinic opens at a rate of about one a week across the country. Public-private partnerships, once a taboo topic, are embraced by provincial governments.
And, choice, often including private facilities, is now becoming an option in the United Kingdom.
So, Dr. Gratzer poses an interesting question,
Why are [the Americans] rushing into a system of government-dominated health care when the very countries that have experienced it for so long are backing away?
If there is any comfort in this, at least we will be able to go to Canadian private medical providers to save our lives.
