Kevin Price
Canadian health care is to die for
FacebookTwitter
By Kevin Price
October 26, 2009

The Canadian health care system, which is often touted as the future of medicine, has been the subject of controversy for years. So much so, in fact, that the Canadian government is seriously entertaining privatizing major elements of the system.

The surface of the program should discourage most. It is touted as free, but is funded through taxpayer dollars. We are told it is universal, but the country's own Supreme Court says that is only in its lines. In fact, two Canadian justices wrote three years ago that "access to a waiting list is not access to health care."

The system is overused, there is virtually no consumer incentive to act responsibly regarding it, and the results are huge lines, delayed treatments, and even death.

In spite the government's best efforts of controlling every aspect of Canada's health care system, the market has risen to address the needs of a public that has grown discontent of having to wait on a list. Seventeen weeks from the time a general practitioner says one needs a specialist and one actually sees one, is too long for most Canadians. Responding to the need, the British Columbia Automobile Association recently began offering "waiting-list insurance" to some of its members as part of a pilot program.

Those who buy the coverage receive treatment in a private clinic in British Columbia or the United States if they were placed on a government care waiting list longer than 45 days. 45 days is still too long for most, but it was an improvement. The kind of improvement the government could not handle as it shut it down to investigate if the program was legal.

"This is an example of a company that's actively soliciting for clients that have the ability to pay for the privilege of queue-jumping," said Adrian Dix, a member of B.C.'s Legislative Assembly. "In my view, and in the view of the legal opinion that we obtained, it is illegal, and it violated both provincial and national health legislation." This is one of the many dark sides of socialized health care. Not do its proponents want to put everyone in a collective system, they do not want anyone who can afford to do more (like insurance for waiting lists) to have that opportunity. The idea of any elected official — or any responsible individual — being opposed to such a program is beyond comprehension. What is "fair" and "equal" in the Canadian system is the misery.

© Kevin Price

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Kevin Price

Kevin Price is Publisher and Editor in Chief of www.USDailyReview.com

His background is eclectic and includes years of experience in both business and public policy, as well as two decades of experience in broadcast journalism. He was an aide to U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) and later went on to work in policy areas with some of the nation's leading think tanks including the National Center for Public Policy Research and was part of the Heritage Foundation's Annual Guide to Public Policy Experts... (more)

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Kevin Price: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
Flashback: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Jerry Newcombe
Church should be about worship, not entertainment

Laurie Roth
Trump, the truth, and America will prevail in spite of leftist evil plans

Cliff Kincaid
Terrorist attack in Baltimore

Tom DeWeese
DOJ ignores 2nd Amendment

Linda Goudsmit
CHAPTER 11: Critical Race Theory: A species of the ideological thought genus Marxism

Pete Riehm
They have tried everything to destroy Trump, but assassination

Tom DeWeese
When your red state governor dresses in blue

Rev. Mark H. Creech
Revelation Chapter 22: Eternal recompense

Tom DeWeese
YIMBYs, workforce housing, and community land trusts: All means to an end to private property

Jerry Newcombe
The vice president visits an abortion clinic—and the people yawn?

Pete Riehm
Like our Commander-in-Chief, America is clueless, feckless, and powerless

Selwyn Duke
Did anti-white, DEI bias steal a state final spot from a white basketball team?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites