Obamacare and Canadian Health Care: A Distinction Without a Difference

Socialists in Congress and the White House tell us the current health care “reform” plan won’t be like the Canadian government health care debacle, that it won’t be like the British government health care debacle, that because “it’s different,” somehow the latest crop of liberals in Washington will be able to make socialism work where every other group that’s tried it throughout history has failed (they are apparently smarter).

But is it really different?  Or is it only different because they say it’s different?

From Investors Business Daily:

Defenders of ObamaCare continually point out that their plan is not like Canada’s, that holding that country’s system up as an example of impending medical doom is invalid. Canada’s system is different. Instead of having a single national plan, Canada’s national health insurance, a kind of public option, is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial plans, all framed under the Canada Health Act.

But based on a report leaked to the Vancouver Sun, this is a distinction without a difference. Even if you break it up into smaller pieces, it’s still state-run medical insurance with decisions on who gets care, based on cost and funding, not need. That is called rationing.

According to the leaked document, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting next month and to cut 6,250 surgeries. They include 24% of cases scheduled from September to March and 10% of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery and 11 other specialized areas. Brian Brodie, a Canadian doctor and president of the British Columbia Medical Association, has called the proposed surgical cuts a “nightmare.”

No matter how you slice it or what you call it, this dog don’t hunt.

Socialism always fails to take human nature–both on the part of the humans using the system and the humans in government administering the system–into account.

And it always grossly low-balls the cost of such systems.

Socialism is antithetical to American values and the U.S. Constitution.  We should abandon these dead-end socialist ideas and turn to the free market solutions that helped make America the greatest nation on earth.

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