Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A Lesson in Canadian Health Care

For all those folks who think that Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's visions of health care are for you, consider this story.

The granddaughter of an acquaintance and her her family live in Canada.

The granddaughter and her mothers came to Illinois to visit this Easter.

But, it wasn't to celebrate the Holy Day with the family.

It was because the granddaughter's toe got hurt.

It wasn't healing.

Her mother took her to her Canadian pediatrician.

The pediatrician said she had to see a specialist. The wait was so long and the mother cared so much about her daughter that she decided to come south for medical care.

In order to prevent the long delays the Canadian system entails, the little girl came back to Illinois to see a specialist.

Maybe if the Democrats impose a similar system next year, we can go south of the border for better care.

= = = = =
On top is the Health Canada home page.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog.

3 comments:

Skeeter 11:49 AM  

I sure hope you reported those Canadians to INS.

Damn Canadians coming here to take advantage of our resources.

Somebody ought to build a fence.

Yellow Dog Democrat 1:37 PM  

LOL Skeeter.

love the fence.

So, Cal, I can't wait to hear what her toe emergency was and how it all turned out.

While we're waiting for the end of the anecdote, some broad facts:

Per capita, health care costs twice as much in the U.S. as in Canada.

As a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product, the U.S. spent 15.3% of its GDP on health care, compared to 9.8% for Canada.

Canadians have a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate.

The World Health Organization ranks Canada ahead of the U.S. in the outcomes of its health care system, and the U.S. health care system ranks 72nd in the world overall.

BTW, 27% of Americans already receive their health care through the government, making the U.S. system of "socialized medicine" larger by comparison.

Now, Medicare is not perfect, I'll grant you. But if Republicans really hate "socialized medicine", they need to stop talking out of both sides of their mouth and introduce legislation to abolish it.

Anonymous,  2:05 PM  

To anybody who wants a Canadian or English national health care system, I have 2 questions for you - Are you nuts? Why on earth would you want the US Congress to determine how much money gets spent for health care?

On a much smaller scale, I offer the State of Illinois as an example of a universal style health care system, albeit for people getting welfare support. The State of Illinois can't pay it's bills to health care providers now. The legislature won't adequately fund the system as it stands. Doctors and other health care providers are turning away medicaid patients because the State doesn't pay its bills in any reasonable amount of time. They can't afford it.

Universal/single payer health care will be the death knell for the American health care system.

I will take my private insurance because it allows me to go anywhere, at anytime to get the medical care I need. I am more than willing to pay the increased premiums for this privilege.

  © Blogger template The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP