Palin: I sneaked to Canada for healthcare [her family took bro to hosp, she was age 5]

The Hill BLOG ^ | By some blogger

[Sub-Driver]

Original title: Palin: I snuck across Canadanian border for healthcare By Eric Zimmermann - 03/08/10 11:33 AM ET

Sarah Palin's family used to "hustle" across the Canadian border to get healthcare, the former Alaska Governor said this weekend.

In a speech in Calgary, Palin called it "ironic" that while growing up in a small Alaskan town near the Canadian border, her family used to sneak across to take advantage of the Canadian healthcare system.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," she said, according to Medicine Hat News (via Dave Weigel.) "And I think now, isn't that ironic."

It's ironic, of course, because Palin and other Republicans have argued that Democratic healthcare reform will put the U.S. on the path towards Canada's "socialized" healthcare system.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Here's the original story from the Canadian Press Service

[meadsjn]

As an infant she lived in the lower 48

From Sandpoint, ID to Creston, BC is 66.9 miles or 1 hour 44 minutes (just going by Google Maps).

I still don't believe she said this.

[proud American in Canada]

As presented, it sounds like a ridiculously, jaw-droppingly idiotic thing to say.

It sure does.

[ExGeeEye]

1. In the 1960s, Whitehorse likely had the nearest medical facility capable of providing the needed care. It is entirely probably that Mr. Heath got on the phone to his local doctor and was advised to go to Whitehorse.

2. “Canadian Health Care” as we know it came into existence in 1984.

3. Some people meed to reset the sensitivity of their freakout triggers, and remember that those who will criticize SHP over this would criticize her if she said the sun was shining.

[Sharrukin]

Sounds like a problem of time and distance.

http://www.alaska-map.org/images/map-alaska_04.jpg

Getting to Juneau from Skagway would mean a trip by air or sea.

[NeoCaveman]

Well it was the 1960’s

And Canada adopted single payer socilaized medicine in the 1970’s.

[Tolsti2]

Um, it’s true though.

[dasboot]

Sorry...I meant the source at the source...Medicine Hat.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

If this is true, I think she was most likely trying to innoculate a story the press was already sitting on.

[Lancey Howard]

No. There was something here recently attributed to “Eric Zimmerman”.
I smell a rat.

[dforest]

So now the truth comes out. That is the missing link. This was a hit piece.

[deport]

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Sarah+Palin+gives+speech+Calgary+crowd+Pamela+Wallin+moderates/2650520/story.html

She drew on some Canadian connections in her family history, and recalled how when she was young, those who were ill went to Whitehorse for medical treatment.......

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hvMMcuuUOV53vHs0bJD-meBNuecQ

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” she said. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic.”

[dforest]

The story left out the context as to her remarks. We know that now, so this story is a hit piece.

[cynwoody]

The Skagway News has a different version of the brother burn story in this account of a 2007 visit there she made as governor:

She said new DOT Commissioner Leo von Scheben is committed to a strong ferry system. She added that “a lot of politics were played in the past, and that is why we changed characters,” bringing in sound transportation minds to figure out “how people who are reliant on the ferry system can get from point A to point B with a reliable schedule and service.”

Palin drew from her Skagway past to illustrate her point. Her brother burned his foot badly jumping through a fire, and her mother had to take him down to Juneau on the ferry to the hospital. “All these years later, that’s still what people have to rely on here in some instances,” she said.

[Tolsti2]

Yeah, it is. But I love all the denial early on in the thread. Fairly hysterical stuff.

[Mr. Lucky]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sarah Palin was born in 1964 and basic health care in Canada wasn’t socialized untilthe 70’s, was it?

[Perdogg]

UPDATE: The Calgary Herald has a fuller, slightly different version of the quote: "My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not – this was in the ‘60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."

[HamiltonJay]

If it is true, why would she not?

[old curmudgeon]

Found this:

This extensive national health system was begun in the late 1950s with a system of publicly funded hospital insurance, and completed in the late 1960s and early 1970s when comprehensive health insurance was put into place.

http://www.theadvocates.org/freeman/8903lemi.html

Note that is was in its early stages at the time Palin mentions.

So probably about where we are now, maybe.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

As expected, the statement in full, with context, means exactly the opposite of what the leftist hack who wrote the article wanted it to mean. I truly hate these people.