Cracks in Canadian Health Care

For those advocating for nationalized health care, consider this regarding Canada's system:

For more than a decade, prime ministers and premiers have boasted about how [Canadian] medicare is the best health care system in the world. In election after election, they have pledged to make it even better.

But in a split decision yesterday, the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada exposed that rhetoric for what it plainly is: A lie, a shallow promise, a political tactic employed by the federal Liberals to gain, and retain, the keys to government. [...]

[T]he judges were unwilling to let governments twiddle their thumbs any longer, while countless Canadians suffer and die while on lengthy wait lists for medical treatment. [...]

The case was brought to the high court by Dr. Jacques Chaoulli and George Zeliotis, a 74-year-old Montreal businessman who contended he waited too long for his hip surgery in the mid-'90s. They said the waiting lists in the publicly funded system have become so long that they violate the Charter of Rights' guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person ...

Universal health coverage? Great idea, but doesn't seem to work so well. There is little doubt that some are better off because of Canada's universal healthcare. The price is that so many others are so much worse off. For example, I know of a case where a woman had to wait 6 months to get a biopsy of a tumor. Well, turned out it was malignant and because of the 6 month delay she died. Too bad for her. Apparently, this happens all of the time in Canada.

It's not fair, in my opinion, to screw the median person and the majority to help out the poorest people.