Chronicling B. Hussein Obama’s War on America
As Grassley (R-Iowa), a liberal masquerading as a conservative, teams up with Democrats in the Senate to push through Obama Death Care, [ACTION: Contact Grassley’s office, tell him what you think of his conspiring with Dems to destroy this nation’s healthcare system: Grassley, Chuck 135 hart Senate Office Bldg, Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-3744 Web Form: grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm] this article at City Journal about Urkel’s template, the Canadian system, is a must-read. From 2007 and even more horribly relevant today.
The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care
Socialized medicine has meant rationed care and lack of innovation. Small wonder Canadians are looking to the market.
I was once a believer in socialized medicine. I don’t want to overstate my case: growing up in Canada, I didn’t spend much time contemplating the nuances of health economics. I wanted to get into medical school—my mind brimmed with statistics on MCAT scores and admissions rates, not health spending. But as a Canadian, I had soaked up three things from my environment: a love of ice hockey; an ability to convert Celsius into Fahrenheit in my head; and the belief that government-run health care was truly compassionate. What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people. When HillaryCare shook Washington, I remember thinking that the Clintonistas were right.
My health-care prejudices crumbled not in the classroom but on the way to one. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute. Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care. I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic—with a three-year wait list; or the woman needing a sleep study to diagnose what seemed like sleep apnea, who faced a two-year delay; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks.
It is imperative as politicians negotiate away our future, please do read the whole thing.
Thank you for the post with his Web Form! Done!
If the government controls health care, then it will be rationed and allocated according to government priorities. If your group has political “pull”, you’ll have better standing. But, one way or another, everyone (except perhaps for destitute illegal aliens) will have reduced access and less control over your own health. Won’t that be glorious?
And if private companies control it – won’t it be rationed an allocated according to what allows health insurers to make profit? The current scenario is even more scary.
At least the government has something to gain from keeping American citizens healthy, regardless of wealth. It’s good for the economy.
In the current system, even if you are dying and NEED urgent attention, private companies will decide if you get health care or not, based on the $$$ numbers that turn out in their calculators.
I hate to mention this, as it may break the very appropriate dour mood built around socialized health care. However, I was in my car (live in TN, do not get Tammy on the radio out here 😐 ) running some errands and listening to Mark Steyn fill in for Rush Limbaugh Wed (July 8). He was talking about Obama’s socialized health care and took a call from a nurse in Oregon who brought up an overlooked aspect of their single-payer, state funded medical program; patient abuse of government controlled health care.
She mentioned a woman arriving to the ER with a yeast infection via ambulance[!!!] as a means of stream-lining their triage. The cost of an ambulance for transportation is picked up by the state, as well as medical treatment and (I assume) the cost of medicine.
I asked my mother, retired of 33+ yrs. RN/ Nurse Management, about this abuse and she returned with an exhausted huff before assuring me that the caller was absolutely correct with her criticism. Mom then cited occurrences of patient’s abusing universal health care systems by requesting an ambulance that would transport them close to a bar they wished to patron after stopping into the ER. In other words- TAXI SERVICE the government pays for. Ridiculous.
Regardless, my $10 says the woman with the yeast infection is a liberal.