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U.S. Debate on Health Care is a Warning to Canadians
I'm inclined to believe the fierce resistance to health-care reform in the United States is the work of a small fringe.
The other possibility is that there's something deep in the psyche of Americans that drives them to defend to the death their right to deny health care to millions of their fellow citizens.
Some have attempted to downplay the scariness of recent protests against President Barack Obama's health reform efforts, noting that a lot of Americans protested George W. Bush as well.
But the anti-Obama protesters are much more extreme - and yet are treated much more respectfully. When Obama spoke in Phoenix last month, about a dozen protesters showed up carrying guns, including one who was interviewed by the national media as he strutted about freely with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. (Anti-Bush protesters got no such media attention, and would have been arrested - if not shot - had they shown up at presidential rallies bearing assault weapons.)
While the U.S. media gave prime time to gun-toting health reform opponents, they all but ignored a Harvard study, reported last week in the American Journal of Public Health, that found nearly 45,000 people die in the U.S. each year largely because they lack health insurance.
As resistance to U.S. health reform rages on - with its inane, vicious, even racist overtones - the fiasco should remind Canadians of the dangers of allowing our public health-care system to deteriorate.
What makes health reform so elusive in the U.S. is the way its opponents - led by wealthy corporate interests - are able to play Americans off against each other.
Americans are hunkered down in their own little bunkers, watching out just for themselves and their families. Anyone proposing reforms that might result in higher taxes is met with a rifle poked out the top of the bunker.
It's this dynamic - citizens pitted against each other - that has kept Americans at each other's throats over health care for years. It's easy to understand, for instance, why middle class American taxpayers resent paying for medicaid, a public program that provides some coverage for the poor, when these same taxpayers can't afford coverage for themselves and their families.
The only real solution is public health care for all. A Canadian-style plan could save Americans $400 billion a year, Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein wrote recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But Americans are so uninformed about the rest of the world that few even seem aware any Canadian can spend weeks in hospital getting state-of-the-art medical treatment and then walk out the front door without owing a penny. Such is the menace of public health care.
Universal care is extremely popular once it's in place, but it can be hard to overcome resistance to putting it in place, as the current U.S. psychodrama shows. (Canada went through a less traumatic, but still difficult initiation.)
All this should serve as a potent lesson to Canadians about the urgency of protecting our public health-care system. Once it starts to fall apart, the rich bolt from it, arrange for their own care and then object to paying taxes for a system they don't much use.
The importance of avoiding this fate has never been more apparent than now, when the snarling fury of America's current crop of right-wing extremists almost makes one nostalgic for last year's gentler, childlike lunacy of Sarah Palin.
24 Comments so far
Show All"But the anti-Obama protesters are much more extreme - and yet are treated much more respectfully.................weapons.)"
If we have any voices left in the big media, these lines should be repeated ad nauseum with footage to back it up.
And the words "impending right wing fascism" should be used for the current political atmosphere constantly. It is better than HLN's child abduction dujour that I witness hat the help club most evenings.
Love
Zero
I wouldn't place my hope in big media. This morning, the Los Angeles Times ran a front page scare mongering story about the Canadian healthcare system. See:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-healthcare-canada27-2009sep27,0,5111855.story
You have to read to the very end of the piece, on the inside of the paper, to hear the reporter admit that most Canadians get wonderful, timely healthcare.
The author points out the tax load of Canadians versus Americans and attributes part of that to the Public health Care system.
In Fact the costs of the US system in TAX dollars as a percentage of GDP is all but equal to Canada's. Medicaid , emergency rom visits and the like along with all the other procedures and processes covered by the TAXPAYER in the US is just as costly per cpaita yet does not cover everyone or every procedure.
Further to that it important to note.
The Author points out the total tax load in the USA is 28 percent and in Canada it 33 percent of GDP. The uninformed might think "Geez these programs are expensive they pay way more in taxes up there".
The author fails to mention the respective DEFICITS.
Until Canadas deficit of this year, Canada has been running surpluses of close to 1 percent each year. The US has been running deficits of close to 5 percent.
This year the US deficit will be over 10 percent and Canadas will be around 3 percent.
Do the math...the apparent lower taxes in the USA is simply because they run DEFICITS and are passing the costs on to someone else.
Our own Fraser institute and various pundits of The "Lower taxes mantra' continually point to the lower tax burdens of Americans when making their case but NEVER ADDRESS the respective budgetary deficits the Federal Governmnets repsectively run.
Now that said.
The Governmnet of BC only a few years ago lowered taxes. They significantly lowered taxes on businesses and slashed Royalty payments on the energy companies and the like. This year the harmonized the sales tax with the Federal Governments, this shifting taxes from business to consumer.
They now run a record deficit.
Their fix is to CUT services. The underfunding of the medical system in Canada is very deliberate and calculated.
[They now run a record deficit.
Their fix is to CUT services. The underfunding of the medical system in Canada is very deliberate and calculated.]
Same crap happens here in Albuttsaresore. With the oil boom the gov't was rolling in cash, but the moment the price of oil falls the gov't is out of cash and they decide to blame the health care system for all the deficit woes. It couldn't possibly be all the tax breaks that the gov't gives to big business that is causing the problem. From the pov of the right, the rich pay their way by giving the rest of us jobs out of the 'goodness' of their miserly hearts; jobs that don't pay much more than minimum wage, and that aren't full time jobs, nor are the full time jobs paying enough to keep a roof over your head or food in your belly.
LOL.
Looks like they're creating a crisis over in BC.
Remember Harris and Snobelen, in Ontario 1994, laughing, cynically stripping the education system - no one supported the encroaching privatization and corporate model in the classroom as long as funds existed to run the education system. Snobelen - "let's create a crisis". Naomi Wolf has written about that strategy. Snobelen, the great moral leader, former used car salesman, got back-burnered and then tossed out, ifI remember correctly.
But that's the strategy in BC -some 3-piece suit with an expensive haircut found a way to strip the system, or at least nibble away at it, until the crisis is complete.
Yes, the price of universal medical care is eternal vigilance.
Author fails to mention that the U.S. government wants nothing to do with a single payer plan. In other words, the pretzel and the congress are in COLLUSION with the corporations to oppose health care reform that would be workable, i.e., single payer or nationalization.
You are correct.
The presence of a successful "socialized" health care system cannot be permitted to continue so close to the imperial center.
The downfall of the Canadian system, however, won't come with a bang but with a scarcely audible whimper, and it's already happening thanks to the influences of corporatist prime ministers like Mulroney and Harper. The former put in place the mechanisms with NAFTA's "hole in the dike" provisions and the latter is quietly creating and enlarging the holes.
"I'm inclined to believe the fierce resistance to health-care reform in the United States is the work of a small fringe."
Well madam, in the first place they are not resisting health care reform, they are resisting this obvious proposal to benefit insurance companies, medical providers and banks.
Secondly, its not some fringe, its most of the American people oppose this type of proposal. To call it reform is a perversion of the English language.
Only fools think that the opposition to these proposals are just a few right wing extremists. It may be comforting to believe the fantasy peddled by the media, but reality will be a cold slap in the face.
Wake up folks, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman and these others are leading everyone down a path to defeat that will last a lifetime.
And if they are stupid enough to desecrate the Senate and the Constitution by using "reconciliation" to get what they want, the blowback will be immediate and fierce. It will destroy the Democratic party and any hope of liberal progress for decades to come.
Ain't no rhyme or reason to suspect corporate Carper Harper's balloon will soon burst. Do balloon's burst because pressure on the inside increases as they go up?
A Jamaican saying goes: " Puss may look pon king but him rader ratta." ( A cat may look upon a king but would rather look upon a rat)
"Ratta Tatta Ratta" The sound of an American made Harley as it roars off with a willing klinger on for the ride.
Glendon Wayne
Violent conservatives get a free pass from the authorities. Authorities = authoritarians = conservatives.
Simple fact of the matter- there is a 20% minority of the US population that hates the rest of us and a portion of this lot have tremendous power and use the rabble portion of themselves vocally against the rest of us. The milk toast intellectual liberal lot doesn't know how to handle them either.
What the author was referring to are the 'active participants' in the healthcare reform debate (Re:I'm inclined to believe the fierce resistance to health-care reform in the United States is the work of a small fringe) where as most Americans won't get off of their couch to actually educate themselves about the seriousness of this debate.
For Obama, this healthcare debate could easily be the biggest piece of legislation since LBJ's Civil Rights Act in 1965, yet the effectiveness of the MSM keeps the public disengaged. Deliberately replacing pertinent issues (such as your healthcare or children dying in some corporate war) with infotainment, sports and marginal news stories, combined with the mainstream media's perpetual campaigns of sophisticated misinformation, it seems hardly surprising that the American public is confused.
Not only for Canadians, but also for anyone living in a modern democracy, it is imperative that we keep a close eye on how corporate America continues to undermine the public interest. To any rational human being who is not subjected to the daily bombardment of slick fabrications and its overt right wing ideology, a sense of fear embraces them as we see a nation of people being led by the nose into the corporate slaughterhouse.
The author sees the same corporate forces at work in Canada and therefore has written this piece to encourage Canadians to remain vigilant as many of the tried and true techniques used south of their border by the medical industrial complex are now being vigorously pursued up north and elsewhere to undermine a system that is vastly superior to what poses as healthcare in the U.S.
Maybe Chuck Norris and his fans will get Texas and some red fascist states including Alaska to secede and that will cut out a lot of the right wing fruit cakes, giving more influence to progressives.
AD
"...and then walk out the front door without owing a penny"
That's not entirly accurate. The average tax rate in Canada is about 40%, similar to other countries with free healthcare. So you actually pay for it whether you use it or not. It's just that everyone who works pays into the plan so yo don't really feel it.
Ontario just went thru the highest tax hike in history a few years ago to better cover OHIP (that's the province's health insurance plan).
Of course you pay for it... Who would argue that? Where do you find a free lunch? But by paying a reasonable tax rate, you spread out the cost. You get your inevitable health care without having the pay the exorbitant amount you would pay if you had to fork out the exact cost of the service you received.
Exactly the same principle as fire insurance. You pay a few hundred a year, and the odds are that you won't have to collect (what are the odds you will never need healthcare, by comparison??) but if your house burns down, you collect its value so that you are not ruined by that bit of bad luck.
People who bleet about paying taxes for a solid one insurer health care are fascists at heart, or just plain stupid and cruel.
"But by paying a reasonable tax rate, you spread out the cost..."
Spread the wealth, huh? ;)
I guess that's easy for you (maybe) and I to say as we can afford to have our taxes increased (I do anyway) but try telling that to the rest of the mortgage holders with 2 kids out there. Most of them are maxed out on their credit cards and barely make it from one month another and already have insurance thru their employer. Not sure they will be happy with a 50% tax hike.
I lived in Canada 10 years, paid my taxes done my part. The only difference is that Canada implemented their healthcare plan a long time ago before people were drowning in debt and any tax increase would bring them down.
"I guess that's easy for you (maybe) and I to say as we can afford to have our taxes increased (I do anyway) but try telling that to the rest of the mortgage holders with 2 kids out there. Most of them are maxed out on their credit cards and barely make it from one month another and already have insurance thru their employer. Not sure they will be happy with a 50% tax hike."
Yes, try telling that to them. Tell them for instance, that under a public system, when their kids get sick, the cost is covered. When their kids develope serious illness, the cost is covered. When either of them gets a heart attack, or requires urgent surgery, the cost is covered. They won't have to sell their homes and go bankrupt.
The people who benefit from a public health system are those who are struggling financially.
For Canadians this view of the sheer mean spiritedness of a certain limited segment of the American public is really enlightening and a timely warning. All those conservatives can be pretty smooth talking when things are going their way which they have for a long time, but their cover is blown now. Trust in America a whole is being destroyed in a way that no amount of charm later is going to fix. Too bad about all those genuinely good-hearted and community minded people down there, they are the ones who will loose the most. Yowsers, guns and assault rifles at a venue where the president is speaking, sure couldn't get away with that in Canada!
People seem to complain about paying taxes to support health care system they never need to use.
But they don't complain about paying insurance premiums for health care they never need to use.
Both are about peace of mind (as the insurance companies like to say).
In a publicly funded equal-access system, though, there is no insurance company gatekeeper trying to earn a bonus by denying claims for "pre-existing conditions" and other tricks.
The new American; never an allegiance shall I make with my neighbors or agreement in common cause with those who want what is mine. Let them suffer and die, as they should, because to value the contents of my pocket, is a virtue more worthy, more authentic, than all the lives of my ancestry and those yet to come, combined. I earn and pay for my freedom at my expense alone and hope to pass on that way, when the time comes. However, if I cannot afford the expense of my own death, then leave me to rot outside with the other dead who couldn't pay their bill and pile our corpses high as a testament to the fraternity of one and sympathy from none.
facetiously Stig.
Canada's health care system is being threatened by more for-profit privatization constantly. The Conservative/Reform Harper government rush to push taxes to the bottom has reduced the public treasury to where it will be necessary to raise taxes to introduce any universal social program in the future. This has been the Harper agenda all his former adult existence when he was heading the National Citizens Coalition that was set up to defeat public health care. Now he the prime minister and in the driver's seat. A health care system cost money; it is NOT free. Having a single-payer is the most efficient way to provide universal health care that does not depend on the size of one wallet when the needed health care is sought. It's truly amazing how otherwise intelligent American citizens are duped by the corporate agenda into accepting the health care disaster they are provided with. You people deserve better and the country can and must provide this basic quality of life for ALL its citizens, not just those who are wealthy enough to get the best of care. If this is socialism, then socialism provides the best health care. Capitalism does not. For-profit health care is not able to provide a universal health care coverage. In Canada, the private for-profit is subsidized by the public health care system and not the reverse. Those doctors in Canada who operate private for-profit health care services pick ONLY services that can generate a profit. It is not rocket science that that occurs. However, a real universal health care system HAS to cover services that are NOT profitable - that's the nature of health care costs. The sooner Americans accept that reality, the sooner they will not be duped by those who have coverage but are not willing to provide it to all Americans.