<<From the April 11 NYT:>>
I can guess the purpose of that New York Times article...to justify the urgency and need for socialized nationalized health care like Canada...Well, let's look north to see how wonderful it really is:
Source: NewsMax
newsmax.com
Wednesday November 24, 1:18 AM
Vaunted Canadian Gov't Health Care System in Collapse
With the usual suspects ginning up resentment against America's private
sector HMOs, you'd think it was this nation's health care system that was
rapidly spinning out of control.
Not exactly, explains David Gratzer in his new book Code Blue, which
instead ascribes that nightmare scenario to the supposed health care
utopia to the north, Canada.
New York Post columnist David Frum explored Gratzer's book on Tuesday in
a column titled "Killed by National Health Care."
Killed? That's right, as in the case of 61-year-old heart patient Philip
Georgiou, who checked into a British Columbia hospital complaining of
chest pains in 1997. An angiogram showed Georgiou needed immediate surgery.
Twelve days later, while still awaiting the procedure, Georgiou lapsed
into cardiac arrest and died.
Then there was 66-year-old Jeannine Lacombe, who sought treatment for her
chest pains at Montreal's Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. She was strapped
to a gurney and wheeled into a hallway, where - lost among 63 other
patients similarly situated - four hours later she was discovered dead.
Frum passed on other stunning tidbits from Gratzer's book, such as the
fact that the average American cancer patient waits no more than 10 days for
radiation therapy while Canadians typically cool their heels for four
times that long. An MRI scan in the U.S. can be had after an average wait of
four days. In Canada, try 150.
The delays have exacted their toll. The number of years a Canadian can
expect to live in good health has actually fallen since 1978. It's now
2.3 years less for women, 0.4 years less for men.
For all the corner cutting, Canadians don't have much by way of savings
to show for their trouble. In fact, under nationalized health care, prices
have skyrocketed 33 percent since 1990. Canadian Medicare already
consumes 21 cents out of every payroll dollar.
In America liberals have already begun demagoguing the health care issue
in preparation for next year's presidential campaign. That includes the
mother of Hillarycare herself, who kicked off her U.S. Senate bid last
summer by telling New Yorkers that she'd learned her lesson after her
own 1994 health care debacle.
Next time, Hillary said, she'll go more slowly. |
