Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ralph Keyes: Rather be Canada?

In our debate about health care, the clinching argument by opponents of significant reform is usually “Do you want a health care system like Canada’s?” Any time I’ve asked a relative or friend in Canada whether they want a health care system like that in the United States, the answer has always been “No way!”

Reposted with permission: RalphKeyes.com

5 comments:

Les Groby said...

An opposing view:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/49525427.html

Grant said...

A reality check on the nonsensical "opposing view":

Points 1, 2, and 3: I love it when someone pullls some isolated study of a cancer mortality statistic where the US performs well then pretends that's representative of across the board system performance. However, we have slightly more rigorous data than that available. Like this:

http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/8/1

Which tells a somewhat different story.

Point 4: See points 1, 2, and 3... even if this claim is true, much good it does.

Point 5: Low income American SENIORS are in better health? SENIORS? As in, those people on MEDICARE? Which is the scary government run insurance the people writing this list want us to be scared of? THOSE American seniors? This point is laugh out loud hilarious.

Point 6. Yes, you can certainly make it LOOK like you have lower wait times if you throw tens of millions of people out of line then say they don't count as "waiting" because they're not getting treatment at all.

Well, at least until they get old enough to qualify for Medicare. which we all need to be terrified of remember, because it's from the government.

Point 7. People in other countries want health reform? Oh No! Not like in the US right?

Point 8. A large chunk of Americans are unaware of the ticking time bombs hidden in their insurance policies waiting to be detonated if they ever start costing their private insurers serious money.

Point 9. Having lots of MRIs is good. Of course, it's only good if you're someone who can afford to use one. Otherwise...

Point 10. Someone refresh my memory... what as the last major medical breakthrough brought to us by a US INSURANCE company?

jafabrit said...

I have lived with the nationalized healthcare and then the American health care. American healthcare is fabulous if you have health insurance, but the idea that nationalized care bureaucrats limit procedures as a means to cut costs isn't much different than what health insurance companies do here. What is wrong with a middle ground and a few more options. So that argument doesn't work for me.

As for Grant's point about Medicare, well taken.

Virgil Hervey said...

A bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, government or private sector. The insurance companies are running roughshod over us. They have the power. How did they get it..? Lobby, lobby, lobby.

When they lost a ton of dough in the savings and loan scandals, they raised the rates for liability insurance and blamed it on the trial lawyers. They spent some of that extra money running ads on TV asking the public to urge their state legislators to pass legislation limiting liability in variety of areas, especially medical malpractice.

They never lose. Have an accident and they will do everything in their power not to pay. If they have to, they will drop you. Call it house odds. You can't win.

cryptozoologist said...

i would just like to say that my mom is canadian and that means half my family is canadian. several of my relatives are doctors that practice in canada. to a person they all like the health care they have, and the doctors appreciate not having to deal with dozens of insurance companies. just sharing.