The failed Republican healthcare bill gave Americans the opportunity to see where we are headed after “repeal and replace” is complete. Unfortunately, the future is bleak and we will likely be left with Big Government in control of the system.
We are often told by the likes of Michael Moore that we should implement universal healthcare that replicates Canada’s. Moore and other proponents fail to explain that Canadians who are seriously ill or in need of surgery come to the United States for their care. The fact that they can come to the U.S. helps camouflage how bad their system actually is.
Our current system is similar to Canada’s and was to some degree modeled after it as a public-private mutant. President Trump thinks it’s a good system or at least he did.
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Our U.S. healthcare is a hydra of public and private rules and insurance. It is an expensive mess with high premiums and deductibles for everyone who is not on the dole, but we’re not Canada – yet.
The Toronto Sun described Canada’s Socialist healthcare system and found it couldn’t hold up to Communist China’s. Canada doesn’t allow people to control their own health or even pay for care the state cannot provide.
It’s under litigation now, but what was most interesting was the reaction of a Chinese Communist delegation who were shocked and disbelieving when they heard people can’t use their own money to get proper care.
The original Democrat healthcare bill also prevented people from paying for better healthcare.
But it’s all free in Canada and it covers everything. Patients rarely see a bill, but like all free services, it shows up in their taxes, roughly $12,000 per average family, but it isn’t enough to prevent the unaffordability, the long wait times, or the people dying waiting for transplants.
While the system is technically private, the government regulations are so Draconian that it might as well be government-run like the U.K.’s.
Healthcare as a right is being interpreted as any healthcare from the smallest issue and it’s unsustainable as Canadians are finding out.
The provinces pay as they go and borrow to do it. Ontario alone is projected to see health-care costs soar to the point at which they will consume 80 percent of the entire provincial budget by 2030, up from 46 percent in 2010.
In an article at the Fraser Institute, Brett Skinner writes that wait times to see a doctor is 17.8 weeks up from 9.3 in 1993. Over the last 10 years, about 10 percent of doctors trained in Canada decided to practice medicine in the United States. In Canada, they are paid 40% of what doctors make in the States. Therefore, and you won’t be surprised, there is a serious shortage of doctors.
They also let their hospitals rot. They have to since there is no money or interest in doing otherwise.
Canada’s system limits the adoption of new technology which is evident in MRI’s, sonograms, et al.
Another problem is the rationing of medical procedures and drugs. They do not have universal drug care.
Public health spending in six out of 10 Canadian provinces will consume more than half of total revenue from all sources by the year 2020 — without even taking into account the added pressures from an aging population. As of 2003, the growing unfunded liabilities for health care reached 46 percent of Canada’s total economic output, Skinner wrote.
Still Canadians love their “free” healthcare because, until you get sick, it’s an ideal Socialist system.
Chart via Fraser:
In the U.K., where the government completely runs things, 800 Straight A students were rejected by medical schools to give seats to foreign students, Daily Mail reported.
They found money to train 6,000 foreigners, but not their own straight-A students who will head for foreign countries to be trained. That makes sense to the politically correct.
The writing is on the wall for the United States. The healthcare system is already ruined and our politicians will do what is right for themselves. The first healthcare bill left the federal government mostly in charge and could easily become Single Payer the next time the Democrats are in office. Let’s hope the second attempt at reforming the system looks better because we are well on our way to Canadian healthcare.
