599...Those Who Forget History

May not recall that the torment that the Americans are going through right now re universal health care, and, if memory serves, they are the only nation in the first world that doesn't have universal health care, is the same sort of hand wringing that we went through in Saskatchewan when universal health care was first introduced about a half century ago.

Doctors threatening to quit, work slowdowns, fear were all part of the introduction of the debate here and are part of the debate there.

Ultimately it is the fear of the unknown that is driving the anti universal health care side of the debate. Interestingly, as flawed as health care is in Canada, it is still pretty good and, on a per capita level, cheaper than the maze of HMO's, PPO's and private insurance that covers only about 80 per cent of Americans.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the Excellence In Broadcasting network yesterday and he was making the [apparently horrible] point that in Canada a lot of doctors are foreign born and trained. OMG, no. Wait, OMG, yes. In my life I have had four regular doctors, and three of them were foreign types. Two were Scots, one was Canuckistanian and my present doctor, well, I don't know. He does speak brokenederd english so I am pretty certain he is from a foreign land but, and call Rush and clue him in on this, I don't care. He fixes what ails me.

Mr. Limbaugh also said that in Canada the government interferes with your health care and picks the doctor for you. Like, uh, doh, no. I will grant that finding a doctor or clinic in this town, Ottawa, is not the easiest thing to do, but I get to choose and, I suppose, the doctor gets to choose who he wants to treat also.

Universal health care is also not a socialist, although it started on this country in socialist Saskatchewan, plot. In fact, Rush, Canada has a Conservative government, France is pretty right wing and the Conservatives take turns with Labour in running the United Kingdom. Universal health care has moved well beyond the realm of ideology and into the realm of sensible economics. It may be counter intuitive to navel gazing, mouth breathing, non thinking right wing ideologues like Mr. Limbaugh but universal health care is actually cost effective, not just on a micro level but also on a macro level.

WFDS