Posted on 10/15/2007 4:10:30 AM PDT by Clive
During the Cold War, when bodies were found on the barbed wire atop the Berlin Wall, the East Germans always insisted the corpses were people trying to get into the Communist bloc, rather than those obviously attempting to escape.
It was one of the charades of Communism -- also often repeated by its apologists in the West. The totalitarian system was so good for ordinary people that no one would ever dream of leaving. The fences were only to keep others out.
Supporters of Canada's government monopoly health system frequently indulge in a similar form of self-deception to sustain their mirage that Canada's health system (alone among developed nations in forbidding private insurance) is the envy of the world. They shout down any talk of reform with dire warnings that attempts to introduce private service delivery or competition will only ruin the finest system there is.
If our system is so marvellous, how come Canada's "health outcomes" keep falling behind the other nations of the industrialized world, all of which allow some form of private health insurance and most of which permit private service delivery?
The latest proof comes from a study in the British medical journal Lancet Oncology, which shows that cancer care in the United States is best in the world. "American women have a 63% chance of living at least five years after a cancer diagnoses, compared to 56% of European women," the study reported. Meanwhile, the survival rates among men are even more striking: 66% in the U.S. vs. 47% in Europe.
In Canada, the five-year survival rate is 58% for women and just 53% for men.
It's not the case that the Americans' two-tiered health system distorts the statistics. For the U.S. survival rates to be so much higher than ours or the Europeans', poor Americans as well as the rich have to be receiving superior cancer care. The innovation, procedures, equipment and medications developed in their private system find their way into the public system, which accounts for about 60% of U.S. health care expenditures.
Is it any wonder then that according to Canadian Medical Association (CMA) economists, Canadians are spending nearly $2-billion annually, out-of-pocket, for medical treatment in the U.S.? If our system were so marvellous, wouldn't others be clamouring to get in rather than Canadians rushing to get out?
As we learned earlier this year from the CMA Journal, since the passage of the Canada Health Act in 1984, which effectively outlawed private health care, more than 12,000 Canadian doctors have moved south -- the equivalent each year of two graduating classes from among Canada's 17 medical schools.
We also learned from Health Canada this spring that 1,500 Canadians -- more than three times the number originally thought -- are studying medicine aboard. When they graduate, they will likely practice abroad, too.
Canada has a dire physician shortage. Our 67,000 doctors give us a doctor-patient ratio of 2.3 per 1,000 population, ranking us 24th out of 28 industrialized countries, not only because we are graduating too few doctors, but mostly because socialized medicine is forcing them elsewhere.
According to the latest comparison of health care in the developed world by Vancouver's Fraser Institute, "more than three-quarters of the countries in the OECD that provide universal access also charge user fees for access to hospitals, general practitioners or specialists .... Additionally, every other OECD country has some form of user-pay, private provision of health care. While many OECD countries rely primarily on public hospitals to provide publicly insured services, more than half permit private providers to deliver publicly funded care."
According to the Fraser Institute, Canada also ranks 16th in the percentage of total life expectancy lived in good health, 21st in infant mortality, ninth in potential years of life lost to disease, 10th in the incidence of breast cancer mortality and second in the incidence of mortality from colorectal cancer.
"All the countries that have fewer years of life lost to disease and a lower mortality rate also have private alternatives to the public health care system and user fees at the point of access to care," according to Fraser economist Nadeem Esmail.
Our total commitment to socialized medicine is killing us -- literally. If we want to once again enjoy one of the best health care systems in the world, we have to unleash the innovation and competition that comes from private care.
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Sounds like Congress needs to read this.
” Sounds like Congress needs to read this. “
They wouldn’t understand all those big words....
Besides, they couldn’t take the time out of their headlong rush towards “Everything not mandatory is forbidden”.....
Wow, someone who undertands the problem and can articulate it.
Well that is the stated goal of socialism isn't it - share the pain so all can be equal? (equally dead)
Christianity is not a suicide pact and socialism is a perversion of Judaeo-Christian social justice traditions.
They wouldn’t understand all those big words....
They don't need to understand them. Why should they care in the least?
After cashing all the checks from the 30% Credit Card Companies, the Corn-to-ethanol lobbying groups, the RIAA, etc., they surely have no problem getting the superior health care they "Deserve".
The only reason some pretend to care is to generate Democrat voters.
*Bump*
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