Do We Really Want Canadian Style Health Care?

Last night, I watched ABC's 20/20 for the first time in probably a year and what did my eyes behold but a package from John Stossel showing exactly what Canadian, "free" health care looks like.  I'd already had my suspicions, but this just really put it all into perspective.  I mean, come on. The government doesn't give anybody a damn thing for free. Are you kidding me? They are taxing us to high hell (some people pay as much as 50 PERCENT in taxes) and you believe they are going to give you something, GOOD, for free? I'm laughing my ass off at that notion.

Anyway, so with that in mind, I want you to take a look at this John Stossel video by clicking the link here (scroll down and click the appropriate video link in the bar) if you haven't seen it yet, or read his commentary on the subject below. I just don't understand how anybody could be so damn stupid as to believe that the government, any government, is going to give EVERYBODY something GOOD for free. It just isn't happening.  The government will cut off FOOD, in the form of foodstamps, to a mother with children saying she's reached the max on her "benefits" and you think they care about whether you get your gotdamn rotten tooth pulled? Hell no!

I agree that it's shameful that some people don't have health insurance and the ability to go to a doctor without having to worry about massive medical bills. But, this entire thing stinks to high heaven.  It's not about health care. It's about Obama want to hoard the coffers of health INSURANCE companies. They don't give a shit about whether your tummy aches. They want more money so that they can have more power to control you from the moment the doctor slaps you on your bloody ass until the moment you cash in your chips. When will that get through your thick skulls?

Here's Stossel's commentary (from www.Townhall.com):

President Obama says government will make health care cheaper and better. But there's no free lunch.

In England, health care is "free" -- as long as you don't mind waiting. People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth. At any one time, half a million people are waiting to get into a British hospital. A British paper reports that one hospital tried to save money by not changing bedsheets. Instead of washing sheets, the staff was encouraged to just turn them over.

Obama insists he is not "trying to bring about government-run healthcare".

"But government management does the same thing," says Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute. "To reduce costs they'll have to ration -- deny -- care."

"People line up for care, some of them die. That's what happens," says Canadian doctor David Gratzer, author of "The Cure". He liked Canada's government health care until he started treating patients.

"The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people waiting for radiation therapy, waiting for the knee replacement so they could finally walk up to the second floor of their house." "You want to see your neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! Just wait six months. You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! Just wait six months."

Polls show most Canadians like their free health care, but most people aren't sick when the poll-taker calls. Canadian doctors told us the system is cracking. One complained that he can't get heart-attack victims into the ICU.

In America, people wait in emergency rooms, too, but it's much worse in Canada. If you're sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours.

"We can't send these patients to other hospitals. Dr. Eric Letovsky told us. "Every other emergency department in the country is just as packed as we are."

More than a million and a half Canadians say they can't find a family doctor. Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor. In Norwood, Ontario, "20/20" videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor.

Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery "elective."

"The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live," she said.

It's true that America's partly profit-driven, partly bureaucratic system is expensive, and sometimes wasteful, but the pursuit of profit reduces waste and costs and gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and save lives.

"[America] is the country of medical innovation. This is where people come when they need treatment," Dr. Gratzer says.

"Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for that type of advancement."

Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care -- forever. Government monopolies don't innovate. Profit seekers do.

We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy access to cutting-edge technology -- CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn't have to wait.

But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the one area of medicine that hasn't been taken over by the government. Dogs can get a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.

Now, let me go for my morning bike ride so that I can maintian my health. I don't want the government to have to decide whether I need to have bypass or whether it's time for me to take one for the team.  --SUGAR

Comments

[AntipartypartyMarcy]

Ride that bike over to your Representative's local office and give him an earful. I just don't believe anything Obama and the Democrats say about the bills they are trying to push through. They lie about everything else, so why should I believe they're suddenly telling the truth now? And the ads they're showing trying to convince us this monstrosity will be a good thing! I'm sure my blood pressure rises to dangerous levels every time I see one. The cynicism of resurrecting the Harry and Louise characters and having them deliver lines like "a little more cooperation and a little less politics." A pox on all their houses. When they come up with a plan they're willing to have applied to their own health care, then I'll believe Congress is trying to do right by us. In the meantime, I know they're the same selfish, greedy bastards they've always been.

But we need to keep in mind that whatever the jackasses can get passed and signed into law by Obama will be with us for a long time. The best we can hope for in the next few years is that the Republicans get control of at least one House in Congress and stop the passage of any more of these insane plans of Obama. But with a divided government, they won't be able to roll back anything that gets passed now.

Contact your elected officials and stay on them until they fear you and your vote as much as they love the lobbyists' money.

[Brittanicus]

These politicians voted Against the Nathan Deal Amendment, that would Prevent Health Care Benefits to Illegal Aliens. Simply put--it's not their BLOODY MONEY! So what! Do they care if taxpayers have to foot the behemoth bill, for anybody who snubs our laws and enters a sovereign country called America? The nationwide parasites are --CHEAP LABOR--businesses who could care less, because they pile up enormous profits. The corporate hierarchy have been having a field day--FOR DECADES. A foreign national gets hurt, their service manager or whoever the underling is, drives the maimed person and relinquishes any responsibility by dumping them on the emergency hospital entranceway. BINGO! nothing to pay!

Perhaps Americans should find some old shoddy clothes, no shave, no haircut and enter every emergency room in our country in the millions? Speak a lot of gibberish and carry no identification with a small splinter in their finger, a touch of a fever or any minor condition. By federal law the hospital will have an emergency on a--EMERGENCY. I am afraid Americans have been Lemmings going over a proverbial cliff, since who knows when? We just keep paying and paying even more to the IRS, to support--ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. Try getting free health care in any other country, other than societies in the European Union? A FAT CHANCE! We are literary being taxed to death, to give welfare to the business overlords. These legislators have already tried to weaken E-Verify, local police action 287(g) and now unwinding the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli enforcement law--which worked, but again was never enforced.

Even our Democrats who are trying to engineer health care for every American---INCLUDED 20 PLUS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR LARGE FAMILIES. Here are 29 Judas Iscariot's, who sold the American people out--for a lot more than 13 pieces of silver? HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS EVERY YEAR. Capps (D-CA), Eshoo (D-CA), Harman (D-CA), Matsui (D-CA), McNerney (D-CA), Waxman (D-CA), DeGette (D-CO), Murphy (D-CT), Castor (D-FL), Rush (D-IL), Schakowsky (D-IL), Braley (D-IA), Sarbanes (D-MD), Markey (D-MA), Dingell (D-MI), Stupak (D-MI), Pallone (D-NJ), Weiner (D-NY), Butterfield (D-NC), Space (D-OH), Sutton (D-OH), Doyle (D-PA), Gordon (D-TN), Gonzalez (D-TX), Green (D-TX),Welch (D-VT), Christensen (D-VI), Inslee (D-WA) and Baldwin (D-WI). I'm afraid I would be banned if I used the right epithet, when leaving a comment for these so called lawmakers?

These are the betrayers of--ALL--taxpayers. These 29 traitors gave illegal immigrants the right to pilfer your billfold and purse, while they sit in their Washington office collecting their 6 figure salaries. REMEMBER THEM AND THROW THEM OUT! DEMAND NO AMNESTY! NO FAMILY UNIFICATION KNOWN AS CHAIN MIGRATION! BUILD THE ORIGINAL FENCE! NO MORE HEALTH CARE OR ANY OTHER KIND OF BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. CLOSE THE BORDER AND STATION THE NATIONAL GUARD. $2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS, JUST IN RETIREMENT BENEFITS? Learn uncorrupted facts at NUMBERSUSA. For myself and family! I am for any health care re-organization, as long as it doesn't smell of copious profiteering and corruption, like the majority of private insurers do?

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[SUGAR]

This health care situation is out of control!!!! Earlier today, a friend of mine was doing that old song and dance move trying to indoctrinate me into going along with this shit. I'm not having it. She was ranting and raving about how a hospital had asked a guy how he was going to pay his bill before was operated on. I finally told her, "well, it's a business. What are they supposed to do?" I get so sick and tired of these lazy asses wanting somebody to just hand them something! The thing is, my friend should know better! She's very well-educated and the whole nine, but when it comes down to these social programs, she's been brainwashed into believing that it's the government's job to just hand people crap.

[MG]

Mom always said nothing is for free...there is always some hiden cost. The true cost is our freedom of choice and life.
President Coolidge ( I think that is how it spelled?) once said "the people must not work for the government but work for themselves."...rings true today as when he gave that speech yrs ago.

[pdgrey]

Well, Sugar, I do. Medicare for all!

[raging]

dental is free in Russia, except there's no ammenities like anestetic. they get used to it though. my coworker's wife from Russia refused anestectic for a root canal in order to save money on her copay. she says vodka works just as well. national healthcare will meet Obama admin population control goals. in regions with large numbers of seniors & large immigrant populations treatment wait will be long & doctors will be leaving. hell wait times & doctor shortages are already a fact. let's just overload the system more. anybody who wants national healthcare is screwing themselves. UK is about the size of Louisiana & it can't manage it's NHS. Obama claims prevention alone can reduce hc costs. Retraining (social engineering) in Britain has been a failure. that's a tiny country. perhaps Obama wants to install 3 million CCTV security cameras in each state, including cameras in the homes of those who can't control their kids behavioral (incl eating) habits. that's the British model. yup, i can see those fatties at HHS sitting around watching mommy & kids eat on CCTV. the country that spawned George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) sure turned out well. too bad for Canadians they can't haul ass to the clinics in south FL for some of that good medical treatment in the future. we'll miss their money. no more "Je me souviens Quebec" plates (yeah, I remmeber too!). sorry suckers, clinic's full.
what we need is insurance reform. FL Gov Crist-Rep has negotiated with insurance companies to offer low cost insurance (including dental) for $150 to $250 regardless of age, to anyone who's not covered by their employer. it's called Cover Florida. apparently it ain't good enough for ppl who want everything for free. like you said Sugar, nothing is free. they'll pay thru the nose & WAIT for Crapcare just to make their hero at the WH look good.
the latest argument i've heard for crapcare from a sufficiently educated friend & biz owner is "Sarah Palin is stupid". 55 yrs old & punch drunk with Koolaide. proof that stupidness knows no age limit.

[raging]

tax breaks for individual health ins plans!
how come Charlie can negotiate with insurance companies but our congress can't? pure bs.
$150-250/mo includes dental & pre-existing conditions. $3k/yr tops. with a $3500 tax voucher like McCain proposed, how can you beat it? I didn't even vote for Charlie. they can stick the $4500 Cash 4 Clunkers up their arse. I want GOOD health insurance without the gov nose in my biz. http://www.coverfloridahealthcare.com/
no friggin state income tax either. buy a home in FL!

[cheap buspar online]

The hell with them! It is not for free, it is just a decoy on what they earn! We are paying huge amount of taxes every year and not a single benefit we are expecting from our government.

[Anonymous]

wow, do things ever get exagerated.. I live in Canada ..It really isn't as bad as 20/20 is making it sound. That's media for you .. Generally, our health care system is great, there may be cases of this, but definetely not at this extent. I personnally don't have
100 000 saved in the bank for a hospital emergency, I can barely get by as it is, and i'm positive that many ppl are in the same situation. Hence, the state of most countries's economy. I would much rather have a system than none at all. Imagine being sick, on top of going bankrupt over a hospital bill, or better yet not being able to get care because lack of funds; that alone is enough to make ppl sick.
Think about it.

[Steve Payne]

I have never read such a load of rubbish as this propaganda about our excellent Canadian health care system. It works, the wait times are nothing like those described, and we don't kill our citizens because in the name of capitalism. We happen to believe, up here, that saving lives and easing suffering are more important than unbridled profit-making. The USA should be ashamed of itself for the way it treats its poorer citizens. By the way, I've waited as long or longer for US health care, on visits south, than I have here. God Bless Canada and God Bless Tommy Douglas, the architect of our national health care system over 50 years ago.

[FedupCanadian]

Wow! I'm Canadian and I can attest that the segment is full of lies. The dr's quoted are known privatizers. Our system has been massively sabotaged during the last 15 years by our gov't MPs and MLAs who are in with the multi-national insurance companies drooling at our potential 'market'. What a disgrace. Dig a little deeper and the so called Canadians against our system are telling big whoppers.

[FedupCanadian]

Oh, and in spite of that sabotage - it's still a good system that works!