I had a commentor from Canada leave me this response to the healthcare debate in a previous post:
Anonymous said...
"I commend you for attempting to dissect the health care issue. It is very complex. I always wonder why Canada keeps being brought into the discussion of US healthcare. The changes being made to the insurance system in the US will not in any way resemble Canadian health care, which is universal and entirely public.
"I commend you for attempting to dissect the health care issue. It is very complex. I always wonder why Canada keeps being brought into the discussion of US healthcare. The changes being made to the insurance system in the US will not in any way resemble Canadian health care, which is universal and entirely public.
We do not have a private option. We DO ration health care in Canada. We have rather long wait times for elective procedures and surgeries. We DO NOT ration emergency care. We DO NOT ration care to the elderly. These are plain lies. I am very pleased and proud indeed of our healthcare system in Canada. I am proud of my peaceful country. Incidentally we have lower rates of infant mortality and higher life expectancies than the US. The United States also rations health care, you ration it by the ability of the people to pay. Wealth is your criteria. As a born-again Christian, you should be fighting for universal coverage for ALL American people. Not covering a significant percentage of your population should be unacceptable. I thought we were to be advocates for the less fortunate?"
First, let me say this:
A polite and well-thought out comment is a treasure in my estimation.
I've seen an egregious lack of civil debate with this issue and I very much appreciate Anonymous' intelligent and reasoned points of argument.
This is the best possible way to discuss any issue...and I applaud you, Canadian Anonymous...I really do!
So, in the spirit of honest debate, here is my response:
Exactly, Canada!
WE are to be the advocates...not the government.
No government on this earth has ever given anything without taking something, be it in the form of higher taxes or freedom to choose or both.
By its very nature governments remove liberty with every law and every tax.
Christ never told us to put our trust in government.
He exhorted us to go and find the least of these to help. He didn't tell us to let the government help them. To pass the buck of healthcare is as un-Christian as it gets.
Churches often got together to help out an ailing member of their community with healthcare costs. They still do to some extent with fund-raisers and such. But it is more difficult than ever with so much government oversight and regulation.
Now doctors are leaving in droves as those regulations push their salaries down.
Pharmecutical companies are taking less risks with new medicines as government regulation holds up their products in red tape for years on end.
Hospitals are closing their doors because the government forces them to cover expenses which they are increasingly failing to reimburse.
In the end, it is the government who is motivated by money.
The private citizen wants to work at what they do best, provide for their family, enjoy the life they've been given, and have enough to help their neighbor.
Wealth creation isn't evil.
Those doctors and private hospitals and pharmecutical companies all incur heavy costs to be the best and give the best healthcare the world has ever seen.
Why should their motivation be only philanthropic?
Does earning money for something make it evil?
Does the government ever give without expecting anything in return?
No, but individuals do.
Does the government ever invent anything that has helped improve the human condition?
No, but individuals have.
I'm glad you are proud of your peaceful country.
It is good to love one's country. It reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Sir Walter Scott:
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?"
Everyone should feel that way about their land of birth.
I hope I always feel that way about America.
That is why I'm trying to get people here to think about what it is they are facing with this healthcare fiasco.
This mess of a bill is not even about healthcare, it is all about changing the face of America and removing every freedom we hold dear.
I'm not exaggerating, Canada.
To give the government the power to take a private citizen's money right out of their private bank account is unheard of in this country...and that's just one little paragraph in a 1200-page bill!
Just let me explain a little of our thought process, and maybe you'll understand my alarm.
America is by nature a freedom-loving nation.
We do not like our government grabbing such power.
Wealth is the by-product of a free, innovative and motivated people.
It is not the criteria by which we live our lives, it is merely the fruits of our passions and our ability to work hard for those passions.
Americans are inventors, creators, independent thinkers and movers. We don't like having our hands tied by regulation, or our efforts undermined by excessive and unnecessary oversight.
Americans are the first to help, from their next-door neighbor to an unpronounceable country on the other side of the world. We will give them the shirt off our back, but not the gun off our rack, because we understand true freedom has a price.
We have innovation in everything from food to transporation to technology, with the only limitation being government regulation.
And by golly, I stand by the claim that we have the best healthcare out there.
The one and only reform to our healthcare that needs to take place would be de-regulation from the government. Anything other than that will raise costs, ration care, reduce medical innovation and breakthrough medicines, close hospitals and give us fewer skilled medical personnel...as well as plunge us ever deeper into a recession.
Healthcare is one-sixth of our economy and the government has never been efficient with anything close to that amount of money...or any money at all now that I think of it.
Obama said it himself...the private mail companies run better than the government post offices.
I know we're coming back to the 'wealth is our criteria' statement you made, but quite honestly, Canada, I'd really rather have healthcare from a doctor who wants to make money, than healthcare from a government that wants to save money.
I don't see any contradiction with my belief in caring for the least among us.
Who will be here to care for them if the government decides I'm a 'negative economic unit'?
(If you don't know what that means...google Barbara Wagner. She's a cancer patient denied life-extending medicines and declared NEU by the state. Thankfully, a Christian stepped in to help provide her with her expensive treatments.)
Incidentally, Infant mortality rates are factored by birth weight.
A child weighing less than 500kg in Canada is not considered a living child.
This skews the statistics considerably.
In Japan, a child that dies within 24 hours of birth is labeled as a miscarriage....again, statistics become something quite different.
I could go on...it's the same with life-expectancy.
In the U.S. all infants who show signs of life at birth, no matter their weight, are considered living children...and counted in the statistics.
Be careful about stats.
And one more thing...when my fourth son was born, we had just gotten private health insurance. He had a heart attack after birth and wound up in three different hospitals to keep him alive.
In the end, the doctors, hospitals and insurance companies all saved his life with their passion, commitment and willingness to explore every possible avenue that could help him.
I'm convinced government healthcare would have let him die.
And out of a quarter million dollars in hospital and doctor's bills, we paid only a 5 dollar filing fee. Yes...five lonely dollars and we hadn't even had the insurance for a year.
Also, I met dozens, literally dozens of women with premature and gravely ill babies.
And none (zero) of those women had insurance...they were the uninsured that government-controlled healthcare advocates weep for.
...and every single one was given access to the same hospitals, doctors and medicines that I had.
They are the least among us and America takes care of them already, Canada.
Freedom doesn't mean everyone will behave compassionately or responsibly.
Freedom is kinda messy that way.
Freedom is a genuine risk.
But to a Christian who knows what it means to really be free...I'll cherish it, fight for it and spread its message as long as I live.
redink
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/900/PreviewComp/SuperStock_900-8204.jpg
UPDATE:
Here's a link to an article from The Canadian Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw
From Dr. Ann Doig: "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,"
She is planning on addressing the Canadian Medical Association at a meeting to determine how to bring private healtcare options to Canadians.
The system is breaking down as it stands. This is the reason so many Americans are keeping a close eye on Canada and Britain's socialized medicine.
It is the platform from which we can see why government-run healthcare is unworkable.
...evidence, if you will.
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