A Grim Diagnosis for Public Healthcare
The myths of Canada's socialized system

While some American politicians often wax poetic in promoting a Canadian-style healthcare system for the United States, all is not as they would have us believe. NEWS FLASH – Canadians are flocking to the U.S. for healthcare. Yes, it’s true.

The Globe and Mail, an Ottawa newspaper reported, “Tens of millions of dollars are being spent by provincial governments each year to send patients to the United States for medical treatment because the care is unavailable in Canada or the waits are too long.”

Ontario Province alone spent $67.4 million on pre-approved U.S. hospital and physician costs between 1999-2002. For a one-year span during this same period, Quebec Province spent $25 million on radiation and cancer treatment in the U.S. British Columbia spent $21.2 for government pre-approved “out of country” treatments in the same period.

Not only is Canada’s government approving and paying for its citizens to receive medical treatment in the U.S., but growing numbers of Canadians are willing to pay for their own treatment in the U.S. when their doctors have written them off or they are offered inferior care. An estimated 166,000 Canadians received health services in the U.S. in 2000, according to Statistics Canada. This does not count treatment for the “snowbirds” who winter in the southern regions of the U.S., or those Canadian travelers who receive emergency care in the U.S.

With average waits of 16.5 weeks between general practitioner referral and seeing a specialist, and another 9.2 weeks before actual treatment (according to Vancouver-based Fraser Institute), it is easy to see why many patients come to the U.S. Critical delays for cancer patients often run a month or two. The wait is eight months for orthopedic surgery and almost seven months for eye care.

The former Canadian Health Minister who introduced the first Medicare cards there, now says times have changed since the beginning of their system in 1970. Then, government did not have a debt, taxes were low and an aging population was not a factor. Not so today. Along with one of the major political parties, he now endorses private healthcare to complement the public system.

Alas, socialism always disappoints. The Canadian health system is no model for the United States: Costs and bureaucracies are overwhelming its system and the concentration of political power necessary to nationalize healthcare allows unbridled power and is an open invitation to abuse. It is a system that produces tyrants who determine which drugs and which treatment, if any, is allowed and to whom it is allowed.

For those who thought a government single-payer system was buried with Hillary Clinton’s debacle in 1994 – think again. That attempted federal takeover of the entire health industry failed then because Americans did not trust that approach.

Healthcare will also be a surefire issue in the Kentucky governor’s race this year. We must watch for misleading and wishful statements from candidates advocating this course.

Pat Freibert is a former Kentucky state representative from Lexington
editorial@lanereport.com

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