PrintSeptember 19, 2007
A Preview of Hillarycare
John Stossel is a national treasure. The ABC News reporter has debunked more claims by more charlatans in and out of government than any dozen other journalists. His decapitation of Michael Moore's claims about the Cuban health care system being superior to Americas in the propagandist's film "Sicko" was a great service to the truth.
In a column in today's RealClear Politics, Stossel shows why "free" national health care systems are neither free nor an improvement over the system we basically have now:
In a column in today's RealClear Politics, Stossel shows why "free" national health care systems are neither free nor an improvement over the system we basically have now:
Government rationing of health care in Canada is why when Karen Jepp was about to give birth to quadruplets last month, she was told that all the neonatal units she could go to in Canada were too crowded. She flew to Montana to have the babies.And, of course, there is nothing "free" about plans like Hillary Clinton's because they are paid for by increasing taxes. In the Clinton plan, you have the added unfree feature of being forced into it - every single American would be required to have health insurance.
"People line up for care; some of them die. That's what happens," Canadian doctor David Gratzer, author of The Cure, told "20/20". Gratzer thought the Canadian system was great until he started treating patients.
"The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people waiting. ... You want to see your neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! You just have to wait six months. You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! You just gotta wait six months."
Stossel reports things are getting so bad in Canada that a cottage industry has sprung up booking flights to American clinics for Canadians:
Canadians stuck on waiting lists often pay "medical travel agents" to get to America for treatment. Shirley Healey had a blocked artery that kept her from digesting food. So she hired a middleman to help her get to a hospital in Washington state.In Great Britain, they are debating whether people who smoke or who are obese even deserve health care at all. This is the kind of thing we have to look forward to if the left succeeds in bringing us the nightmare of national health insurance.
"The doctor said that I would have only had a very few weeks to live," Healey said.
Yet the Canadian government calls her surgery "elective."
"The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live," she said.
