I’ve already blogged about how disastrous Elizabeth Warren’s “medicare for all” plan is, and how absurd her lets-pretend way of funding it is as well.
But, just for fun, let’s indulge the lets-pretend aspect – not of funding, but of the idea itself.
Frankly, this discussion should begin and end at the fact that government would not be in control of your health care. Can anyone name any government-run program of any kind that runs smoothly? Efficently? Cost effectively?
If the answer is no – and I have no doubt it is – then how thrilled will you be to have government having the final word on your personal health care?
If that isn’t enough, how about asking innumerable veterans how the VA health care system works out for them – how impossible a mess it is (one that President Trump has gone a long way toward fixing, by the way – a fact mainstream media almost never mention).
But, for those who can still, somehow, against all logic and history, convince themselves that government would do a great job administering health care, I thought you might like to see the following segment from Adriana Cohen’s latest commentary for the Boston Herald, in which she reminds you of how “great” Canadian “free for all” healthcare works:
Last year the Fraser Institute, an independent Canadian think tank, reported the median wait time to see a general practitioner is 8.7 weeks. To see a specialist is an additional 11 weeks. That’s nearly 20 weeks before a Canadian citizen can get the care they need. Now consider if you or a loved one has a life-threatening illness like cancer where the disease will likely advance while waiting months before the bureaucracy hopefully signs off on treatment.
But that’s not all. Ms. Cohen continues:
If anyone thinks allowing power hungry socialists to control the entire health-care industry — 20% of the U.S. economy — is a good idea or will go smoothly, just remember that here in Massachusetts, the government couldn’t even get a website to work during the Obamacare rollout.
And who can forget the 2015 inspector general’s report that found that 307,000 veterans may have died waiting for medical treatment at the VA? Not exactly confidence building.
Little wonder that Canadians of means, who need serious medical attention, bypass their wonderful system and head south to the USA.
Elizabeth Warren might be able to sell some people on her health care fantasy plan. She’ll certainly get high ratings from the people who will get free health care on the backs of other people’s funding, which is what “free” actually means here.
But for people who want a health care system that, with all its flaws (and there are many), for the most part works? This makes about as much sense as her claim to be Native American.
Oh, one other thing: if you think the wait times noted in Ms. Cohen’s commentary are the only damning elements of Canada’s health care system, please, please, please read the executive report from last year’s Fraser Institute survey (which, actually, was done in December, less than one year ago).
You will see, in clear, unmistakable terms, that, despite what our media like to romanticize about Canadian health care, it is an absolute disaster.
