Universal Health Care Scam

Whenever I hear people talking about “Universal Health Care (UHC)”, my skin begins to crawl. The repeated canard that the American system is far inferior to the socialist systems of the UK or Canada just falls flat on its face when faced with the facts. UHC doesn’t lead to access to the doctor, it just leads to access to waiting lists.

According to CBSnews.com on March 20th, 2005, in Canada, it takes about 3 months to get an electrocardiogram (commonly known as an EKG). Three months. For a test that takes FIVE MINUTES to perform, and even quicker to be interpreted. It takes 3 years to have surgery to correct torn knee ligaments.

In an effort to try to improve waiting times, the Canadian government has come up with some “guidelines” for acceptable waits. To get your knee replaced, you should only have to wait 26 weeks. And if you need cardiac bypass surgery, the most you should wait is, again, only 26 weeks. And these are the government supported wait times. A US citizen would sue their doctor and everyone else in the room if they were told they had to wait 26 days for bypass.

Another common myth about socialized medicine is that it is free. In the same article by CBSNews.com, it is revealed that Canadians pay 48% income tax. That means that if you make $40,000.00 a year, you have to pay $19,200.00 in taxes. Thus you only actually get to have $20,800.00 to pay for EVERYTHING you want to buy, including your mortgage. I don’t think people fully comprehend this fact.

Yet another myth is that Emergency Room visits would be decreased if only the USA had universal health care. It is assumed by the media that being uninsured increases the usage of ERs. However, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, one out of five people in Ontario went to the ER at least once within a twelve month period. That’s 20 percent. And, nearly half of all infants (48%) were seen in the ER during 2003-2004. Of this multitude of visits, over half were for NON-EMERGENT conditions like chronic back pain and sore throats.