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.

[Gene Eric]

Good points.

[tubebender]

Well if you have seen it before why do you continue to ping the pingies?

[Star Traveler]

I’m just saying that it’s a common practice to ping the pingees in the original post that a person is responding to, since they were originally involved in that particular “conversation”...

But, what happens, sometimes, is that one of them thinks that it’s “to them” and it’s not really (but only for being “part of the original conversation”).

If that’s too confusing, then simply forget it, as it’s not worth going into it any further... :-)

[tubebender]

I don’t know what got into me but I want to apologize for flying off the handle at you...

[Star Traveler]

Hey... no problemo... as the Terminator would say... :-)

[Al B.]

Sarah mentions a story that happened 40+ years ago and the Rubber Room Crowd thought Sarah was talking like it was happened yesterday. Now thats Funny.

I'll wait patiently for the MSM to delve into Zero's childhood. /s

Also, expect the media to be scouring Palin's childhood writings to see, for instance, if her position has changed on ANWR...LOL. Unbelievable.

[21twelve]

“Perhaps now the left should start asking five year olds if they favor socialized medicine.”

There’s a young kid (10 years old?) from Washington State in D.C. today giving a talk about healthcare, since his mother died a couple of years ago due to lack of health insurance. He’s been doing it for a year now at various rallies, etc.

[Lakeshark]

Interesting context here: http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2010/03/its-only-947-am-in-west-coast-and-weve.html

[Jim Scott]

Being a Palin supporter (but not a worshiper)I just waded through 300+ posts on this non-issue.

It's pretty clear that Sarah Palin did make the statement (to a Canadian audience) about her parents taking her little brother over the border to Canada for emergency medical treatment and that this was a common procedure for their Alaska-based family some 40 years ago, prior to Canada's adopting a full-fledged socialized health care system. I'm sure her audience understood the irony Palin referred to because today, Canadians often cross the border into the U.S. for health care due to the socialized heath care system in Canada being sub-par.

I see the early denials and deep suspicion of the veracity of the Palin quote by Palin supporters stemming from the left's longrunning, incessant attempts to smear Sarah Palin and demean her in the eyes of the general public because she is clearly a popular political personality that is a real threat to the left. Sure, a few Palin supporters were a bit too strident in their disbelief but that is understandable considering the attacks on Palin that have occured for the past 18 months. So, another non-story about Sarah Palin and it generates well over 300 posts - including this one. Amazing.

[Clyde5445]

If I am not mistaken Sarah mentioned something about this in her BOOK. BUT of course I could be mistaken. BUT I am pretty sure it’s in her BOOK. Thats sounds about right and I am sticking to it. IT IN HER BOOK. Now thats a FACT.

[Star Traveler]

That's good enough to include here for the record ...

---

It's Only 9:47 A.M. on the West Coast and We've Already Gotten Multiple Walk-Backs on Part of the Canadian Healthcare Story (Ben Smith Updates)

By Tommy Report

The following claims were made early this morning regarding Palin's comments in Calgary:

Palin, as a young child, lived in a remote community as near to Whitehorse as to any Alaska metropolis.

The nearest city in Canada, Whitehorse, is a 15 hour drive away. Anchorage is only 45 minutes away.

The closest Canadian city is 15 hours away from Wasilla.

Little did these bloggers know that the source from which they were quoting either deliberately or unintentionally left off the fact that Palin clearly said that the story emanated from when her family lived in Skagway. Skagway is pretty close to Whitehorse. Now the fun part is seeing all the walkbacks:

"Palin, as a young child, lived closer to itthan [sic] earlier reported."

"The Calgary Herald has a fuller, slightly different version of the quote."

Ok, it appears that this was when Palin lived in "Skagway, Alaska," which is much closer to Canada.

In any event, the Calgary Herald notes that "Medical Care Act that established national medicare came to Canada" was implemented in 1966." Since Palin did not give any time frame for when this story occurred, it's possible that her family went over to Whitehorse prior to when socialized medicine was implemented in Canada. Also, the Calgary Herald notes too that "it's not exactly anybody's political choice where they receive medical attention when they're less than five years old."

Even if the story occurred after 1966, I'll call hypocrisy the day wealthy liberals give back their Bush tax cuts (if it's not clear, I do not believe liberals who benefited from the Bush tax cuts are hypocritical at all).

Update: I'm hearing from even some Palin adversaries that even though the "Medical Care Act" was enacted in 1966, it wasn’t until 1972 that universal health care could be found throughout Canada. If this is true, then no argument can even be made about "hypocrisy."

Update #2: According to the summary of Canada's health care system by Health Canada, it was only until 1972 that Yukon "create[d] medical insurance plans with federal cost sharing."

Update #3: If Whitehorse is closer to Skagway than Juneau and if the Palins paid for their son's care while they were in Yukon, how is that hypocrisy? If they paid for their son's care in Yukon, then how is she benefiting in a hypocritical fashion from socialized medicine considering that the whole point behind socialized medicine is that you don't have to pay for your healthcare (and I still reject the premise behind the "hypocrisy" argument because of the liberal/"Bush tax cut" logic I cite to above)?

Update #4: Ben Smith adds the point we made in our second update to his original post:

ALSO: Socialized medicine apparently only kicked in in Yukon in 1972, post-Palin.

[denydenydeny]

So, another non-story about Sarah Palin and it generates well over 300 posts - including this one. Amazing.

Because completely made-up stories about Palin are articles of faith for the Left. Which is fine; if people want to be delusional, I can't stop them. However Palin is one of those areas where the media are slow, if not completely reluctant, to tell the truth. And that makes my blood boil.

If the media were anything even remotely close to an honest broker on the subject of Palin, we wouldn't be so defensive.

[Windflier]

Well, the first thing to do in cases like this is to see exactly what a person said, and get the rest of the facts lined up first...

If you noticed, I prefaced my statement with, "I don't believe..."

I hadn't recalled that the Heath family lived in Scagway when she was little. Her time there is little more than a quick footnote in her book.

Not that I had any idea how close Scagway is to Canada, either, but having seen later comments on the thread, I see that the Canadian border (and modern hospitals) were closer to their family at that time, than Juneau.

I do recall from the book, Sarah saying that to this day, travel to Juneau is difficult, so the capitol is somewhat isolated from the rest of Alaska.

It's also emerged that when Sarah was a small child, Canada didn't have a fully nationalized health care system. Apparently, lots of Alaskans in Scagway and surrounding areas used the Canadian hospitals in that time.

At any rate, don't engage in knee-jerk responses, but check out all the details first.

And you shouldn't engage in public scolding of people you don't even know. I'm fine with friendly suggestions.

[Windflier]

Thanks for the info. I’m seeing it in other comments on the thread.

It appears that Sarah made an unfortunate ad lib that has been immediately exploited by her enemies.

[Windflier]

Too bad that Sarah didn’t explain the travel difficulties from Scagway to Juneau before she made her comment.

I’m sure she’s already had her “Doh!” moment.

[Star Traveler]

:-)

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Too bad that Sarah didn’t explain the travel difficulties from Scagway to Juneau before she made her comment.

The Canadians she was talking to didn't need the explanation, doncha know... they already knew that... :-)

[Windflier]

The Canadians she was talking to didn't need the explanation, doncha know... they already knew that... :-)

There were reporters there, so Sarah had to be aware that she was talking to an international audience. Sorry, but she knows better than anyone, that everything she utters in public is fair game, and is reported far and wide.

[Star Traveler]

So, since a person has reporters there and it’s an “international audience”, I guess that means that politicians and their speeches have to be “cleaned up” for the Chinese, the Russians, the Europeans, the South Americans, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Africans, the Arabs, the Israelis ... ummm... have I left anyone out? LOL ...

[jonrick46]

The Conservatives for Palin have debunked this stupid sewage of Fascist Media:

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2010/03/its-only-947-am-in-west-coast-and-weve.html