Posted on 08/15/2015 6:48:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
“As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland.” — Donald Trump
I was criticized for inviting Donald Trump to speak at FreedomFest this year because “he’s not a libertarian.” True enough, but we’re a big tent in the freedom movement, and our 2,500 attendees wanted to hear what he had to say, whether they agreed with him or not. I invite you to watch the full speech.
In that speech, Trump adopted his typical stance about preventing other countries’ criminals from entering the United States illegally across the Mexican border. I agree with his criticism of ObamaCare, which is expensive and goes against many market principles. Fortunately, he did not get around to singing the praises of socialized medicine as he during the Aug. 6 Fox News presidential debate. There he said that the government-controlled, “free” medical care system in Canada and Scotland works. Say again?
The Canadian healthcare system works fine until you have a serious illness or need surgery. Wait times for knee or back surgery is 42 weeks on average, for example. Many Canadians know this stark reality and schedule trips south to the United States to have the surgery done there.
Martin Samuels, the founder of the neurology department at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, found this out when he worked as a visiting professor in Canada. “The reason the Canadian health care system works as well as it does (and that is not by any means optimal) is because 90% of the population is within driving distance of the United States where the privately insured can be Seattled, Minneapolised, Mayoed, Detroited, Chicagoed, Clevelanded and Buffaloed,” Samuels wrote recently in Forbes.
But things are worse in Scotland, where your chances of surviving cancer are much lower than in the United States, for example. But that’s another story.
I don’t worry about this because (a) none of them every follow through with their campaign stuff and (b) he’s been tweaking it as of late.
What Trump says is crazy, but crazy can only be outed by the competition of other ideas. When will the House or Senate bring to the floor a specific vision to compete with what Trump is saying?
‘Twould be nice if the author provided a time-stamp for the statement under question so we could easily see the context.
My experience was with OHIP (Ontario’s health care system), was in the 1970s. What I got was what you get going to the US post office: unconcerned, snarky layabouts who’d rather be on coffee break than deal with patients.
trumpbots coming in for a landing to insist that it doesn’t matter in 3 . . 2 . . 1 . .
None of my Canadian friends complain about the healthcare there. However taxes to pay for it are through the roof and they complain about that.
RE: Twould be nice if the author provided a time-stamp for the statement under question so we could easily see the context.
If you’re referring to the statement about Canada and Scotland’s healthcare system, he made that statement in the first GOP debate.
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb7r_ZhMRI
That’s what I thought he said. He is not proposing single payer.
“What I would like to see is a private system...”
Just like his statement about continuing to fund Planned Parenthood...some posters even started defending the organization for all of the “good things” it does and that Trump would “defund the abortion part” as though that makes sense - essentially using the Dem talking points to defend Trump that none of the Federal funds go toward the abortion business side of the organization therefore the funding is okay. It was extraordinary...the “true conservatives” defending Planned Parenthood funding - simply because Donald Trump said it, and he can do no wrong.
I do like some of the things Trump forces into the open such as the violent crime that some illegal immigrants are importing into the country, and his latest video depicting the fact that the Obama administration and the Clintons have been lackadaisical about confronting threats to our security. The media expresses outrage at Trump, but at the same time it forces the narrative into the mainstream. He’s essentially the “bad cop” of politics right now. On key issues, however, he’s a used car salesmen - he’s all over the place with no apparent core beliefs. His lecturing / talking down to conservatives at the Arizona rally in July was all I needed to hear to know he is not authentic, coupled with this endorsement of single-payer and his past statements stating he was “very liberal” on healthcare and wanted to impose “universal healthcare”, his constant changes in party affiliation, etc.
Did he, or did he not, say that the single-payer system in Canada and Scotland works very well? That’s the point of the article...
RE: “What I would like to see is a private system...”
I would like him to :
1) Explain why he thinks the Canadian and Scottish systems work well ( he used INCREDIBLY WELL for the latter ).
2) And if it works very well for both, why does he not propose adopting it?
Isn’t Scotland’s health system pretty much subsidised by the English...
Trump calling his plan "single payer" though does not make sense, unless he also means to permit private health insurers the option of using Medicare's payments system. This would make some sense, especially if those private insurers were allowed and incentivized to root out fraudulent billings, a major problem in Medicare.
This is old crap from a site co-founded by Erick Errickson.
How many times does Trump have to say allow insurance companies to compete across state lines?
It doses work well for bureaucrats and politicians, unless they get sick.
The life expectancy in Canada is 82 years. Obviously, their health care system is not disaster. Remembering that a lot of health care is the ability to catch stuff early on routine visits.
He did explain it. He said given what we have now, it wouldn’t work.
My Canadian daughter-in-laws parents high-tail straight down here to The States whenever they need serious medical care Like they did when her step-father needed heart by-pass surgery. They would have had to wait at least a year just to get on a waiting list to be seen by a specialist.
I work in a nursing home where the average age is 92.
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