05 Aug 2007 No Such Thing as Free Health Care

Joe Roche has a new column in the Lexington Herald-Leader, where he is a contributing columnist. In “‘Sicko’ a twisted view of health care system,” he pretty much takes Michael Moore’s movie apart.

My favorite part:

Canada is often touted as an example of successful national health care.Not so — 74 percent of Canadians are upset about long wait lists. Between 1993 and 2003, the median wait time between referral from a general practitioner to treatment increased 90 percent. Only 5 percent of Americans report elective surgery waits of more than four months, compared to 27 percent of Canadians. Heart attack victims are 17 percent more likely to die in Canada than in the United States. Many basic but needed surgeries, like orthopedic, have 16-month delays.

The result has been a push for increased market reforms allowing private insurance and some privately run facilities. These have seen huge successes. Rich Canadians also travel to Singapore, Thailand, India and the United States for treatment. Cleveland, for example, is the hip-replacement center for Canadians.

Liberals claim health care is free in Canada. That is true only if you are not Canadian. Otherwise, 22 percent of Canadians’ taxes pay for health care, which is a lot for a service they can’t be sure they’ll get.

Joe also takes a hard look at the true state of Sweden’s universal health care sysytem, possibly inspired a bit by this paper we released in May by David Hogberg.

Read the whole thing.