Federal health care means bucking the odds

I was a sophomore in college. An outbreak of meningitis had just erupted in the neighboring town. The community had been quarantined.

Knowing the deadly potential of meningitis, I marched down to our health clinic and asked for a shot.

I was shocked by the answer.

“We can’t do that,” the nurse informed me.

“Um … but there’s a meningitis outbreak in the next town. And I know that this disease is very common in college dorms …”

“I’m sorry we can’t give you a shot.”

“Well, I’ll pay, of course.”

“No, if an outbreak occurs, we’ll inoculate the entire campus for free.”

“But the only way to detect an outbreak is for someone to contract the disease — and the first person to get it often dies.”

“I’m sorry …”

So, I had the pleasure of waiting, hoping that the gamble worked out, at a university in Canada.

Currently, there are some in Washington who are trying to bury the current U.S. health care system. Their ultimate goal is to create a health care system ala Canada.

Perhaps these politicians don’t like the short waiting lines, quality treatment, doctor choice or cutting-edge technology. Maybe they don’t like it when people from around the world come the U.S. for surgery. Or maybe, just maybe, they just have a super duper rosy view of universal health care.

Let’s look at Canada, the holy grail of universal health care. Canada has a single payer system, which means the government pays for all the health care. Anyone can get health care at anytime — no matter how small the illness.

(Cough cough. “I want to go to the doctor.” “Um, you just have cold.” “Who cares — it’s free.” “Good point.”)

According to the Commonwealth Fund International Policy Health Fund, 42 percent of Canadians wait two months or longer for specialist treatment. The number of Americans who wait that long: 10 percent.

Most Canadians wait more than a year for an MRI. Americans? A week. In fact, there are five times as many MRI machines in the U.S. as there are in Canada.

According to the Fraser Institute, 800,000 Canadians are waiting for treatment at any given time.

What happens during these waits? Well, to be honest, people die. Canadian Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin has admitted that “patients die while on the waiting list.”

Britain is little better where 33 percent of Britons wait two months or longer for specialist treatment. Because of their soaring health care costs and long lines, rationing is the norm.

Last year, 61-year-old Briton Dorothy Simpson was denied coverage for a routine heart operation because she was too old.

The moral of this tale: Don’t get sick over 60 or else government doctors might think you’re expendable.

How about quality? In America, the cancer survival rate for men is 66 percent. European men: 44 percent. American women: 63 percent. European women: 56 percent.

Americans with prostate cancer have a 99 percent five-year survival rate. In Europe, the survival rate is down to 78 percent. (Lancet Oncology, 2007)

Now, I realize that current legislation in Congress would not immediately create a single-payer, universal health care system. However, the current legislative plans have a “public option,” wherein the government would allow you to buy low cost federally run health insurance.

Since the government plan will not need to make a profit (they can just raise taxes to get more cash), the federal program will always have the lowest costs. Deficits will be acceptable. Profits will be, well, irrelevant. Private insurance companies will never be able to compete with such a system, and will go bankrupt.

And then good ol’ Uncle Sam will come ridin’ to the rescue. Abracadabra! Universal health care, ala Canada: longer lines, more pain, less choice. Goody.

So, as you sit at home for months on end waiting for your doctor’s appointment, hoping that you are given a physician who gives a darn, comfort yourself by knowing that the U.N. most likely approves of our new system.

Although, by that point, we’ll be too bankrupt to pay our U.N. dues — thanks to the trillion-dollar-plus health price tag.

Darin Markwardt is a Palmer resident.