2011-08-24

Our National God

Here's a pointer for my American readers who believe the US health care system needs to look more like Canada's; or, for my Canadian readers who believe that the Canadian health care system is better than a market-based or two-tiered system:

I don't think any of us would have thought that we would be practising in a system where five million Canadians do not have access to a family doctor, or [where] one in 10 Canadians cannot afford their medications.

That's the president of the Canadian Medical Association speaking.

5 million Canadians, in a population of 30 million, is about one-in-six. For the scorekeepers out there, one-in-six is what most analysts point to as the pre-Obama number of US residents who do not have access to a family doctor. 

What this means is that the Canadian "single-payer" health care system has not improved access to health care at all. The rate of failure as measured by access to a family doctor is identical to that of the spooky, evil US health care "system."

Questioning the efficacy and rationality of the Canadian health care system is so taboo and off-limits that it is tantamount to heresy in this country. "Universal" health care is the Canadian National God. This bulging, bloated, blob of bureaucracy is a drain on national resources. It has failed utterly in its promise to effectively provide affordable health care to all Canadians.

At what point do we shake off the shackles of our false god and reform the system? How many people need to suffer or die for the sake of our national health care experiment? How much misery are we willing to put up with before we admit that our system has fared no better than that of our National Rival?

Yet, Americans careen down the path of Canada's greatest national mistake, oblivious to the headlines of their Northern neighbors. 

Someone please stop this madness. 

2 comments:

  1. So what would you suggest? You mention access to a family doctor. What about access to care (completely different)? What would YOU do?

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  2. No doctor = no care. The poor and the extremely ill don't have time to hunt down treatment through a kafkaesque bureaucracy. Time is money. Waiting lists kill poor people. People need to understand that all quotas and rationing systems hit the poor harder than the rich. Canada's hippy health care experiment has utterly failed in its ability to improve access to care for anyone.

    The only solution is to turn the system over to the same forces that guarantee the greatest access to the greatest number: markets.

    The United States should also give this a try.

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