Investor's Business Daily, September 19th, 2007
Health Care: Those who hold up Canada's nationalized system as a model for the U.S. have another piece of evidence that maybe it's not: Those who are sick and have a choice go to the U.S. for their care.
The most recent example of this trend is Belinda Stronach, a Liberal Party member of Canada's Parliament and daughter of Canadian billionaire industrialist Frank Stronach.
Stronach, a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, came to California last June for a cancer operation. Her spokesman, Greg MacEachern, told the Toronto Star that she made the decision to go to the U.S. because it was the "best place" for her type of surgery -- not that she lacked any confidence in Canada's health care.
But Stronach, who has the resources to afford the finest in foreign care, isn't alone. Stronach's fellow Liberal Party member Robert Bourassa, who served as premier of Quebec in the early 1990s,chose to be treated in Cleveland, Ohio, when he was diagnosed with cancer -- not in Canada.
Just last month, , we wrote about Karen and J.P. Jepp, who had to leave their home in Calgary, Alberta, for Great Falls, Montana, to give birth to their identical quadruplets. Why? A shortage of neonatal beds and inability to perform a C-section for multiple babies.
You might wonder, if Canada's health care system is so great, why would a Canadian city of more than a million people have fewer beds for newborns and fewer services than a fairly remote prairie city of 57,000? Good question.
In fact, these and other instances lay bare the ugly truth about Canada's system: Far from being a health care paradise, Canada's system is in disarray -- and getting worse. That's why it's pursuing private-sector reforms, even as we consider national health care.
In 1998, 212,990 Canadians were on hospital waiting lists for surgery, waiting on average 13.3 weeks. Today, more than 800,000 Canadians are on waiting lists, waiting often 20 weeks or more.
Survival rates for major types of cancer in the U.S. are higher than in Canada. As such, seven of 10 Canadian provinces send their prostate-cancer patients to the U.S. for treatment. What does that tell you?
Americans have more access to advanced medical procedures like dialysis and coronary bypass surgery, and use more medical technology like CT scanners and MRI imaging machines. Canada's Fraser Institute puts it bluntly: "Canadian patients do not get the same quality or quantity of care as American patients."
Universal care, as pushed by Stronach's friend Hillary Clinton, will have the same results in the U.S. as in Canada.
Do Americans really want that?
