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Why repeal of Obamacare is so important

Look to Canada to see why Obamacare must be repealed



If you want to know what life under Obamacare will be like in the very near future, then I recommend a visit to Canada. Due to government rationing, healthcare in Canada has all but imploded since the institution of a universal single-payer system back in 1984. Since 1984 (an fitting date, if ever the was one) Canada has been one of only three countries in the world where private healthcare is illegal. The other two are North Korea and Cuba, in case you’re wondering.

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But it wasn’t always this way. Prior to 1984 the Canadian healthcare system was very likely the best in the world with the availability of both publicly funded and privately paid healthcare. Back in those days a call to one’s family doctor resulted in an appointment usually within 24-hours. Referrals to a specialist on average took less than a week and treatment thereafter did not involve unreasonably long wait times.

Canada Health Act, universal single-payer system

The difference between then and now is that individuals and families paid for government health insurance on a monthly basis and in many cases physicians charged a small additional fee above and beyond what was paid for by the government health insurance program. But the passage of the Canada Health Act (CHA) in 1984 changed all that.

Government healthcare monopoly, costs skyrocketed, unions and the bloated healthcare bureaucracy

The philosophy behind the CHA is that healthcare is a human right that should be free. We all know that anything “free” has no value and as such people started treating the Canadian healthcare system like an open bar, running to the doctor at every opportunity. In order to pay for this binge, provincial governments have imposed an additional tax, which was passed on to businesses in the form of payroll taxes. Since there was no competition in the government healthcare monopoly, costs skyrocketed as unions and the bloated healthcare bureaucracy ate up most of the available money. Now over 50% of most provincial budgets goes to the delivery of healthcare and projections in some provinces indicate this figure will rise to over 100% of provincial budgets. Governments in Canada have long realized that the system is broken, but are unwilling to do anything to fix it. There have only ever been two remedies. The first was to ration healthcare by reducing the number of doctors in the system and limiting the procedures for which the government pays. Naturally, this resulted in shortages of available healthcare and an increase in wait times for treatment. The second remedy was to shovel additional money into the bottomless healthcare pit in hopes that money would solve the problem. Of course all that juicy fresh cash was promptly gobbled up by public service unions and bureaucrats, who felt more entitled than the hapless patients they were serving. It’s interesting to note the stark contrast between government provided healthcare and private healthcare, which consists of everything for which the government refuses to pay. Most public sector medical facilities in Canada are Kafkaesque labyrinths of drab waiting rooms with humorless attendants. Private medical facilities, on the other hand, are clean, cheerful and staffed with friendly, outgoing people. The former views the patient as a drain on resources, while the latter views the patient as a customer.

The average wait time for treatment in Canada is now 18.2 weeks

For over a decade wait times in Canada have increased and are continuing to increase exponentially as the system lurches from crisis to crisis like an inebriated circus fat lady. Most recently, the Fraser Institute, a conservative Canadian think tank has issued yet another report on the state of healthcare in Canada. The average wait time for treatment in Canada is now 18.2 weeks. Don’t let the word “average” throw you off because many procedures take considerably longer. For instance, according to this report there are some 90,000 Canadians waiting an average of 35.6 weeks for orthopedic surgery. Today patients in Canada are waiting 141% longer for treatment than they did in 1993 and unless something changes, the situation will only get worse as the population ages. This is the reason that Obamacare needs to be repealed as soon as humanly possible. As the law mandates certain types of medical insurance for all Americans, private insurers will get out of the business due to onerous regulations, such as being forced to underwrite policies for patients with pre-existing conditions without additional cost. Once that process is complete, welcome to soviet healthcare in America.

See for yourself what “free” healthcare has done for the quality of medicine

This isn’t to say that American healthcare couldn’t use some tweaking, like tort reform and increasing competition among insurers. But heaven forbid that a single-payer government monopoly healthcare system is instituted in the US. The net result will be a spectacular increase in the cost of delivering such care and a concomitant decline in quality and accessibility. If you doubt my word, then come to Canada and see for yourself what “free” healthcare has done for the quality of medicine.


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Klaus Rohrich -- Bio and Archives

Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism.  His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others.  He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.

Older articles by Klaus Rohrich


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