That CNN article was a bunch of nonsense.
It's very easy to see a specialist in Canada. All you've got to do is say these simple words, "Can you call me if there's a cancellation?".
My wife got an Endocrinologist in 24hrs and a CT scan in 12 hours.
Since Canadians get free healthcare, we're notorious for missing appointments as we know we'll always have insurance and there's rarely ever a penalty if we don't show up.
Because we have socialized medicine, people need to be a little flexible here and there, but at least I never had to pay for the tests, specialists and surgery we had to go through that would have easily been over $100K.
I admit, CNN does put out laughably bad stuff. And I apologize for seeming to build a case around one of their articles. A lack of time is no excuse, but there it is.
That said, if were truly as easy for every person to see a specialist as you personally experienced, would this woman not have done so? Am I overly cynical to suspect your experience is not true across the whole of Canada?
My larger issue - and I apologize again for what will be a poor effort in making my case - is that the central state cannot be as efficient as the free market. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise with regard to health care. Instead, there is already immense waste being proposed.*
Source:
Cafferty File: Tell Jack how you really feel Blog Archive - Should health care legislation contain billions for parks, walking paths and farmers markets? - Blogs from CNN.com
And it will not stop. In a recent article, Peter Schiff mentions that Medicare was started in 1966. At the time, the program cost $3 billion to maintain. It was estimated the program would cost $12 billion by 1990. Instead, by 1990, it cost $107 billion.*
Source:
Double Whammy by Peter Schiff
This is what I expect of our central state with regard to health care. They will never get it right. They cannot get it right. Instead, they will make bad estimates, waste resources, and further push us into an economic calamity. Meanwhile, I fear people will put more trust into the machine without realizing the long-term economic cost.
Imagine the folks behind Amtrak, the DMV, VA hospitals (good example there), and other inefficient enterprises making decisions about who gets what procedure and when.
I'm very glad to hear that your wife received the help she needed as quickly as she did. That is a fantastic experience. However, I fear it will not be the experience of most U.S. citizens.
