I have more than a few friends from Canada. Even the most liberal of them admit that for small illnesses they might use Canadian health care, but for serious situations they find a way--such as using a spouse's health care plan--to get treated in the U.S. I'm not saying that the U.S. system doesn't have serious issues, but socializing health care is not the answer.PAUL KRUGMAN
And private insurance? That’s the thing, I— Actually, can I just —I wanted to ask a question. And—JOHN DONVAN [MODERATOR]
Please—please do—PAUL KRUGMAN
—and I wanted to ask, actually two questions, to the audience. First, how many Canadians, would Canadians in the room please raise your hands. [ONE PERSON APPLAUDS, LAUGHTER]JOHN DONVAN
We have about seven hands going up—PAUL KRUGMAN
Okay, not as many as I thought. Okay, of those of you who are not on the panel who are Canadians,, how many of you think you have a terrible health care system. [PAUSE] One, two—JOHN DONVAN
We see—almost all of the same hands going up. [LAUGHTER]PAUL KRUGMAN
Bad move on my part. [APPLAUSE]
Hat tip: The Heritage Foundation via Instapundit.
1 comment:
Being married to a Canadian, we have experienced many facets of the healthcare discussion. Most rational Canadians will tell you that their healthcare is great 'until you're really ill'
The glorification of 'free' or rather government paid for by high taxes health care is foolish. It yields low quality health, overworked doctors, and in my recent experience in Canada, shoddy diagnoses.
However, there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that makes healthcare available only to the more 'elite' members of society -- i.e. those with salaried jobs or entrepreneurs with some measure of cashflow or a spouse with benefits.
While I can't imagine a scenario in which I'd like to raise taxes, I can envision cutting some of the absurdly funded government programs and giving grants to each state to devise a system in which we could have a public/private health care system much like our schooling system. Those that want better, pay more or take the other option.
I'm just throwing out one possibility -- there are many, but I'm sick (no pun intended) of people telling me that we should have health care the way the Canadians have set it up. I've seen it first-hand, and had in-laws coming to the states for treatment. Yes it's 'free', but you get what you pay for, right?
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