[Constitution Day]

Steyn ping?

[rockrr]

Great read! (As always with Steyn ;'}

[Mr. K]

excellent read~!

We have a local author who writes bi-weekly about the need for a wonderful government nanny state, while (with seemingly no sense of irony) he complains about the idiocy of the local politicians and the inept govt employees.

[TX Bluebonnet]

If the Democrats have their way and America moves (as it’s doing incrementally) to government health care, the entire system will fall apart and we Montrealers will have to drive a week south to Costa Rica.

I know a lady who just drove her grandson down to Mexico to have a root canal. There is an American dentist working down there right across the border. I guess he doesn't have to pay malpractice insurance so its is much cheaper.??

[GOPJ]

First came the French and Dutch voters’ demolition job on the European Union’s ersatz constitution designed to enshrine permanent rule by a technocratic elite convinced it knows better than the citizenry what’s good for them.

You either trust the people or you've got the heart of a totalitarian. It's that simple...

[GOPJ]

The fact that we all received the same non-treatment testified to our virtue, though even this perverse defense was utterly phony: One of the most unattractive features of our ersatz egalitarianism was that it led to the creation of a humbug nomenklatura who (like Canada’s prime minister) use private clinics for their own health even as they continue to proclaim that decrepit incompetent monopoly public health is an eternal “Canadian value” that can never be changed.

Is this like the dems putting their kids in private schools while condemning vouchers? The dem mentality is everywhere...

[Dog Gone]

Well done.

[NCSteve]

This is more proof of Michael Savage's claim that liberalism is a mental disorder. They just keep trying the same failed ideas over and over again, expecting a different result each time.

Oh, and Steyn is brilliant, as usual.

[Gritty]

Has anybody figured out how to clone Mark Steyn yet?

[drpix]

Someone once encapsulated socialism in one rule - which in this case applies literally:

'When you cannot comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.' (paraphrased)

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Oscar-winning crockumentary maker Michael Moore, whose forthcoming film Sicko is a savage indictment of U.S. health care leavened with a Bowling for Columbine–type suck-up about how we Canadians do these things so much better. That section may have to be re-edited.

Only stupid thing I've ever seen Steyn write - why does he think Moore would let facts get in the way of one of his "documentaries"?

[goldstategop]

Universal health care means equality of inaccessibility. I mean there's this wonderful idea that's its free so I guess the Left gets its revenge knowing no one gets health care when they need it. After all, every one waits on the same terms. This isn't waiting for Godot and Mark Steyn is right to label Canada's perverse attitude, "sicko."

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Brian Allen]

BUMP.

Thanks for the ping, Pokes.

[maica]

Of course, despite the government monopoly, Canadian health care does have a private sector. It’s called America.

%%%%


The very same people who promote buying our medications from Canada, do not share this little secret with Americans. While the Canadian politicians have done everything they can to prevent any private medical care in Canada, they just fly on down to the good ol' US for their medical needs.

[GretchenM]

This has vast implications for the Oscar-winning crockumentary maker Michael Moore, whose forthcoming film Sicko is a savage indictment of U.S. health care

And why should Moore care? Because HillaryCare is in the wings; stabbed like Shelob into retreat for a time, waiting to spring again on an unsuspecting American public.

[proud American in Canada]

Thank you so much for posting this, CD, and for the ping, Pokey.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. Where shall I start, with my total frustration with the Canadian health care system? Maybe I'm madder than a lot of Canadians about it because for most of my life, I experienced the best health care system in the world.

So where to start. Let's see... I think you're both guys so I hope you don't mind if I say this :), but I could mention that I haven't had a pap smear in over four years because I don't have a family doctor (pap smears cannot be done when you visit the clinic on a walk-in clinic, basis, see below, which is the only basis you can visit a clinic if you don't have a family doctor) and I'm too old to go to the women's clinics (seriously, I was told, "our mission is really geared towards younger women" when I asked if I could get the procedure there).

But instead I think I'll recount that happy day I spent with my five year-old daughter, who had an oozing ear infection during Christmas in a remote Quebec town. The only thing open was the hospital, so we went in there bright and early. Little did we know we'd spend the next nine hours there.

I wasn't allowed to leave with my daughter and come back--or I would lose our place in line. At one point, well two hours had gone by with NO ONE being called to see a doctor.

I asked the nurse if there was anyone actually working behind the door, and the response was, "It's the doctor's dinnertime."

At this point I began talking to the crowd, kind of like, "are you going to take this, people?" Of course, everyone else was upset too, but in typical Canadian fashion, they don't do anything about it. "It's the way it is," is the reaction I got.

When my kids would get sick in the U.S., I'd call up that morning, and get an appointment the same day. Not here. You have to go to the walk-in clinic and sit. And sit. It's always an entire morning or afternoon. In fact, people line up a half an hour before the place opens just to be first! And sometimes there's a little scuffle for the Alpha spot when they finally open the door.

There's one man in Ottawa who was turned away for major heart surgery, even though the doctor said he was a "walking time bomb," because there weren't enough beds to do his surgery. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these stories.

It's impossible to get a new family doctor--they're overworked and leaving, oftentimes to the States where they can actually get paid.

And in Quebec, there's the added obstacle of being fluent in French. There were two highly competent nurses in Montreal, in an English hospital--they never had to speak French with their patients.

They were fired, though, because they made two small grammar mistakes on a French exam.

The Canadian system is BROKEN.

[nothingnew]

Acceptance of the initial concept of “waiting” is what matters.

Marxism at its best.

"Komrade, think of your komrade...he's been vaiting almost 3 years...should ve poot you in front of him?...No...no komrade, eets not hillary in front of you...she has the best medical coeverage available on the planet...what's dat you say?...how she affords it?...hahahaha komrade, she does not pay for dat...YOU do!...Hahahaha!......Come now...to operating room...komrade Swimmer Kennedyvitch needs a liver.......

FMCDH(BITS)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Canadian health care does have a private sector. It’s called America.

LOL!