Universal health care not all it’s cracked up to be

To the editor:   

The president is now promoting a universal health plan that will cover all United States citizens. According to President Obama, his program is going to “fix” the “broken health system” that has provided health care for Americans for many years. Although the proponents of the presidents program deny this is a nationalism of the health industry, that is exactly what has inevitably happened in every other country that has adopted this approach to health care. This has resulted in many problems for their populations. We occasionally travel through Canada and have several longtime friends who live there. Also, we had to use their emergency room facilities once so we have personal experience with their plan. Without going into too many cases, we would like to point out a few typical instances that highlight the problems.

An article in the Fort Nelson News (4/02/2008), titled “No Spring Babies in Fort Nelson” documented that maternity services at the Fort Nelson hospital would not be available for a seven-week period that spring. Mothers expecting during that time were advised to make other arrangements, which included moving to other towns that would have services to assist them. One couple we know had to travel more than 300 miles to have the baby. The article closes by noting, “This situation is not a new development for Fort Nelson mothers, it has been the situation for many years, but it never gets easier for those traveling mothers-to-be.”  Fort Nelson is a town of about 5,000 people in northern British Columbia.

Several years ago, there were articles in several BC papers warning folks that emergency room doctors had gone on strike due to non-payment of their fees by the administrating government agencies. We were unable to follow up on later developments so do not know how widespread or long the strike was in place.

Rationing of health care and long waits for diagnostic services and major treatment are common in all countries that have universal health care coverage. We were told by a local physician that Norwegians over 80 do not receive any treatment for major ailments other than for pain control (that’s really a nice scenario for senior citizens, many of whom are grandparents and great-grandparents). It has been reported that many patients  come to the United States for treatment by our “broken” system rather than face lengthy waits and possibly no treatment at home.

We suggest that readers who support the universal health concept reconsider their support in light of the experiences of citizens in other countries.

John and Judy Raynor

Wasilla