'Single Payer' Health Care Is Hardly Free
Opinion Editorial by Paul Hsieh -
Sep 19, 2007
30 ratings from readers
While Canadians drown in the ills of "single-payer" health care, leading Democratic presidential candidates are salivating to plunge Americans into the morass. To fight back, arm yourself with the facts.
Michael Moore’s latest movie “SiCKO” sings the praises of
the Canadian “single-payer” socialized medical system. Some Americans want a
similar system implemented in the United States.
Defenders of the Canadian system frequently claim that
patients don’t have to worry about money when they’re sick — the health care is
free. But is this really true?
No.
First, it is ludicrous to think the system is free. Each
citizen is forced to pay for his neighbors’ medical care in the form of high
taxes. (As a percentage of GDP, total taxation is 28 percent higher in Canada
than in the United States.)
The government, rather than individuals, then decides how that money is spent.
Even worse, in the name of “equal access” the government
generally forbids patients from purchasing medical services outside of its
system. Canadian law makes it difficult or impossible for citizens to spend
their own honestly earned money on medically necessary care for themselves or
their loved ones, even when both the doctor and the patient are willing.
To control costs, the government restricts access to crucial
medical services via infamous waiting lists. This imposes a second, hidden,
cost on patients: their time.
According to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, “Canadian
doctors say patients wait almost twice as long for treatment than is clinically
reasonable, ... almost 18 weeks between the time they see their family
physician and the time they receive treatment from a specialist.”
Because of the waiting lists, mortality rates for treatable
conditions such as breast cancer and prostate cancer are significantly higher
in Canada than
in the U.S.
A
Canadian woman who discovers a lump in her breast might wait for months before
she receives the surgery and chemotherapy she needs, with the cancer cells
multiplying rapidly as each week goes by.
If she lived in the United States,
she could receive treatment within days.
This tax on time is especially cruel because the burden
falls hardest on the sickest patients, i.e., those with the least time to
spare.
Consequently, Canadian patients routinely suffer and die
while waiting for their “free” health care. The National
Center for Policy Analysis notes, “During
one 12-month period in Ontario, ...
71 patients died waiting for coronary bypass surgery while 121 patients were
removed from the list because they had become too sick to undergo surgery.”
To guarantee “free” health care, a government must force the
individual to pay for everyone else’s medical care and limit his freedom to pay
voluntarily for his own.
With bureaucrats deciding who receives what, the
individual is therefore forbidden from spending his money according to his own
rational judgment (and the advice of his doctors) as to what’s best for his
health.
When a government forces people to act against their own interests, it’s
no surprise that the results are misery and death.
Fortunately, Canadians are starting to recognize the
problems inherent in “single-payer” health care and are taking very small steps
towards limited private medicine. America
must not repeat Canada’s
mistakes.
As P. J. O’Rourke said, “If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
