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February 10, 2009
Canada Knows What We Have to Look Forward To
With the help of the unforgivable traitors Specter, Collins, and Snowe, the Senate has passed the pork-laden socialist power play the media complicitly calls a "stimulus package." Predictably, the stock market has reacted by going into freefall.
In addition to burying the economy in senseless debt that we may never be able to repay and setting the table for Zimbabwe-style inflation rates, Porkzilla allows the federal government to ration healthcare. Combined with last week's expansion of SCHIP, this means we essentially already have socialized medicine. For an idea of what this means, we need look no farther than Canada:
In Ontario, Lindsay McCreith was suffering from headaches and seizures yet faced a four and a half month wait for an MRI scan in January of 2006. Deciding that the wait was untenable, Mr. McCreith did what a lot of Canadians do: He went south, and paid for an MRI scan across the border in Buffalo. The MRI revealed a malignant brain tumor.
Ontario's government system still refused to provide timely treatment, offering instead a months-long wait for surgery. In the end, Mr. McCreith returned to Buffalo and paid for surgery that may have saved his life.
Too bad escaping to America won't be an option, when America has undergone Change and isn't here anymore.
Those who are deemed by the bureaucracy to be too old will be up a creek when they need healthcare. Ask Bill Murray of Alberta, who
waited in pain for more than a year to see a specialist for his arthritic hip. The specialist recommended a "Birmingham" hip resurfacing surgery (a state-of-the-art procedure that gives better results than basic hip replacement) as the best medical option. But government bureaucrats determined that Mr. Murray, who was 57, was "too old" to enjoy the benefits of this procedure and said no. In the end, he was also denied the opportunity to pay for the procedure himself in Alberta.
We have fought major wars over far less than what Democrats have been able to impose on this country in only three weeks of control in Washington.
On a tip from Byron.
Posted by Van Helsing at February 10, 2009 1:38 PM
Comments
Part of the problem in Canada is that the Canada Health Act restricts doctors from operating privately, even though a couple of provinces (B.C. and Quebec) have a few who do have their own clinics. I'm not certain what the conditions are for these doctors, but I think that the Act does impose some.
Posted by: violet at February 10, 2009 3:14 PM
Yes, the government bureaucracy must ensure that the free market is unable to prove how inefficient the government bureaucracy really is, however easy it would be to do so.
Posted by: Mr Evilwrench at February 12, 2009 3:32 PM
