I was just listening to The Ed Morrissey Show as I frequently do and one of his guests today was Steven Crowder. The topic at hand was Steven’s latest PJTV video about his recent visit to Guantanamo Bay which I hope a lot of people watch – the place is not what the major media outlets would have you believe (no big surprise there as usual).
After the Gitmo discussion Ed took a few moments to chat about one of Steven’s older videos, Undercover: Steven Crowder Investigates CanadaCare that takes a look at what the system is like in Canada as opposed to what Michael Moore tells you it is like. I saw the video back in July and watched it again just now after being reminded of it. I’d guess that if the pro-ObamaCare and M Moore disciples watch it they will probably think it is biased, one-sided, not how it really is yada yada yada….
Well, I was born and raised in Canada, lived there for 49 years before moving to New Mexico earlier this year, and I can say that Steven’s experience matches my own, especially true of the last several years. No matter how much government (taxpayer) money gets thrown into the system it does not get better. Every level of government increases spending every year and every year the doctors, hospitals and clinics ask for more. The wait times do not get shorter but longer. The problem is not just that the cost of the actual healthcare component is rising although that of course does play a large role but that the related costs are higher than need be. The unions for hospital workers insist on ridiculous wages for cafeteria and cleaning staff, far more than what the private sector would pay. Any government that wants to “privatize” those services is demonized by the unions, media and left-wing parties as being anti-healthcare and anti-Canada or in the pockets of the USA and drug companies or whatever. Sometimes the doctors themselves don’t help the problem either. They won’t do a simple prescription refill for an asthma inhaler without you coming in and using their time – perhaps I should say “billable time.” It just does not make sense to me. There’s a shortage of doctors so lets waste their valuable time when it is not necessary. Certainly they should not just prescribe something over the phone indiscriminately, especially in the case of addictive narcotics and/or dangerous drugs, but in the case of “routine” things like an asthma inhaler a quick look at a patient record would show when the last prescription was issued and if that was within the guidelines for the drugs normal dosage then just call the damn thing in, if it is being overused then by all means request that the patient come in for a visit as they probably need to be re-evaluated anyway.
When my own family doctor closed his office a few years ago I could not find another GP in my area that was accepting new patients. Okay then, so that meant using the walk-in clinics, which is okay in theory but in reality does not work very well. Every clinic (at least where I was living) now seems to have rules about what service they will or will not provide. For instance, the aforementioned simple prescription refill…forget it…got to go to your GP for that.
And then there is that silly notion that it is all “free.” What a joke that is. There’s the higher income tax rates at both federal and provincial levels, and on top of that most (if not all) provinces have health insurance premiums that must be paid every month. Drugs are not covered. Eye exams are not covered. Dental is not covered. There are other “co-pay” fees assessed on many other items. I was fortunate to have an additional insurance plan at work and even that left me with an annual deductable, did not cover eye exams, and had very limited coverage for many things like chiropractor visits or psychologist. No folks…free is the very last thing the Canadian system is.
So yeah, in this Canadian’s opinion and experience Crowder pretty much nailed it.
