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September 14, 2004
Socialized Medicine a Bitter Pill
Canada often boasts its universal health care program shows it is more caring than the United States, but the system is creaking alarmingly, with long wait lists for treatment, and shortages of cash and doctors. . . .
As the politicians bicker, Canadians spend more time waiting in line. A study by the right-wing [gasp!] Fraser Institute this month said that average waiting time for treatment in 2003 rose to 17.7 weeks from 16.5 weeks in 2002. . . .
Some delays are much longer. Patients in Ontario who require major knee surgery can wait six months to see a specialist and then another 18 months for surgery.
Socialism, as always, is a complete failure. One might expect the government to see this and try moving in the direction of freedom instead, but one would be mistaken.
Ottawa has in the past withheld health care funds to provinces experimenting with for-profit clinics and new federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh took up his job in July with a vow to "stem the tide" of privatization.
Like all government types, he first refuses to admit that the government is the problem and then demands more government to solve it. (Sound familiar?)
Canadians are going to experience shorter, less healthy lives as time goes on, and so are we Americans as our system gets closer and closer to theirs--thanks, in no small measure, to the "compassionate conservative," George W. Bush.
Posted by Mike Tennant at September 14, 2004 04:45 PM