This thread has, so far,
completely missed the point. By comparing one version of socialism to another, better options are not considered.
Claude Castonguay is regarded as the "father of Canadian healthcare".
From Investor's Business Daily:
"Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.
"The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: “the father of Quebec medicare.” Even this title seems modest; Castonguay’s work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.
"Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in “crisis.”
“We thought we could resolve the system’s problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it,” says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: “We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice.”
Get that? The guy whose brainchild is the Canadian system of government control over medicine says it's not working and that
the private sector needs to be leveraged.
We need the same thing here. The US government has been too involved in our healthcare.
My wife is from Canada but now lives in the US. My mother in law (age 62 and living in Canada) needs a knee replacement. As she left for a 3-5 month visit to the US, she was told that if she moved up to #1 on the list she'd remain there and get the surgery when she returned home. When she got home she was told that she lost her place in the queue and would have to wait 2 more years. They're still trying to push back on giving her the surgery because she's
too young. Yes, there's an expected failure or replacement time for the new knee, and the bureaucrats want to make her wait until the replacement window will be more likely to be longer than she is expected to live.
Meanwhile, she decided to lose a bunch of weight to prepare for the surgery. The doc said it's not necessary but it's certainly a good idea. So, she's lost over 90 pounds. Losing that much weight has its own side effects, like excess skin that doesn't shrink as a person loses weight. The only way to get rid of it is through surgery, but--get this--she's
too old for that particular surgery.
I'm sure similar things aren't unheard of in the US, considering the involvement of the government and insurance companies.
Both the US and Canada need to reduce the involvement of third and fourth parties in the delivery of medical care.