Our Democrat betters want to impose a single payer Canadian system on us. It was revealed (to no surprise) that Nancy Pelosi privately admits to it. As we know, Bernie Sanders openly calls for it.
Universal health care coverage: What could go wrong?
Obviously the system in the United States has serious inefficiency problems too. United States spends more on heath care than most any other industrialized country, yet patients are less satisfied than ever. Obamacare, while expanding coverage to some, made the overall system considerable worse for those who had insurance (not paid for by their employers). Rather than rolling back that entitlement and exploring changes that might make a positive improvement, there remains stupid insistence that more government control, less free market principles at play, will make heath care better. It won't.
I did not have high hopes for any GOP "fix" on ObamaCare. I get the feeling that Murkowski, Collins and McCain are voting the way they do just to spite Trump.
While changes are needed, Canada's system is NOT the model to follow. We should be going in the opposite direction of CanadaCare. It is expensive without delivering value for what is spent. Canadian Healtcare wait times are now running about 20 weeks (it varies by Province) for medically necessary procedures. Those wait times are also for diagnostic services (such as MRIs and other testing), which escalates the problem. You have to wait for the referral to a specialist, then wait for the diagnostic testing, then wait for treatment.
What is the Canadian system like? It's like the VA. Which means sometimes it works well, a lot of time it works really slowly and inefficiently with less than optimum outcomes, and sometimes it fails horribly. And as much as people rail about how lawsuits drive up the cost of health care in the United States (to some extent that is true in it results in defensive medicine), the truth is that competition between providers and the risk of consequences for bad service in the private sector do improve health care outcomes.
What the United States should be exploring is how to make our current system more efficient and deliver better, cost effective care, while figuring out how to address gaps for certain segments of the population. The Canada Healthcare system is definitely not a viable system to follow.
We constantly hear how drugs are less expensive in Canada. Canada achieves this by working out deals (really more extortion) with drug makers and offering less drugs to choose from. Which means if a certain less common drug is best for your particular condition, it might not be available in Canada. And also, prescription drugs are not covered under the Canada healthcare system (you pay that out of pocket). Strangely enough, some generic drugs are actually more expensive in Canada than the US.
"Free" healthcare in Canada is also limited health care. So in the end, unless you are good with those long wait times and limited coverage, you will need private healthcare insurance (or cash) to access healthcare in the United States and other countries (you also need it traveling between Canadian Provinces).
90 Miles From Tyranny: Penn Jillette on Compassion
Lem's Place: Healthcare reform and how the US stacks up
Proof Positive: Making it suck for universally for everyone!
Heritage: Sanders' Single Payer would be a disaster for the country
Powerline: P.J. O'Rourke, call your office and It takes a distillery (or three)
Instapundit: Trudeau tells illegals, stop coming to Canada Not enough 'free' healthcare for them?
Wombat: Twitchy: Stardate ROFL – Canadian William Shatner Battles Hordes Of SJWs (Even A PUPPETEER), Jokes Write Themselves, Canadian Mark Steyn: Looming And Creeping, Bring The HEAT: An Interesting Look At The WW2 Canadian Munitions Industry
Yes, but the point is to make is suck equally for everyone.
ReplyDeleteMore Canadian health idiocy here:
https://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/2013/09/obamacare-previewed-in-frozen-north.html