02 – 03 February 2010

American resistance to socialized medicine

It’s bad enough that the progressive left wing in the US has accused the Birther movement of claiming Barack Obama was born in Canada, rather, the greatest sadness I’ve experienced is that the Democrats here in the US don’t seem to be in touch with everyday folk. Whether it has been a local I’ve spoken to while out and about, the AASF personnel who’ve been mentoring us, or all those we encountered in Wilmington, Delaware last fall; all have expressed, to one degree or another, a complete distaste of having to pay for a health care system, not because it would provide an opportunity to reduce health care costs, but because it would be imposed upon them without having a say, or a choice, and probably having to fund it through higher taxes.

Americans balk at our high tax rate, and we take it in stride because of what we have become socially conditioned to accept. The US has a history of Big Government meddling and being best at providing the least for the most cost. Ronald Reagan rode that wave to the White House, and if you are ever so inclined, try to find some of his pre-presidential speeches on YouTube. In a sense, they offer a warning to Americans, about what he fought for and changed, and how all of that is on the precipice of going back to the old glory days of Democratic White House Domination in the USA. (See video below)

The success of social conditioning

More than once, and at my own self-repressed embarrassment, I had to listen to some of my Canadian co-workers smugly discuss health care with Americans, as if our system is superior, and wondering why they are so reluctant at wanting a system to cover all for themselves. Sometimes, I find myself asking the same question, but I’ve learned to respect the political convictions of our hosts and find no satisfaction in rubbing our good Canadian fortune in the face of others’ dearth. From Tommy Douglas to present day, our fortuitous history has given a majority of Canadians access to a care unrivalled for the middle and lower class, than which can be found elsewhere in North America, Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon aside.

I know our system of Health Care isn’t perfect, and it’ll never be. After having experienced how my grandparents and my father were accommodated at home in the last years of their lives, how health care workers and family members are invited to integrate themselves together into the same system; there have been many swings of the pendulum as better health care in one part of the country has had to be reduced to match the minimum standards of other areas, in some mad socialistically motivated methodology where all must be equal in access to health care, rather than just equally having access. And it is that socialistic threat of the prior, rather than the latter, which drives Americans to mistrust socialized medicine.

We Canadians have been sensitized to defer to institutional medicine. The CF went to the Blue Cross to cover the medical needs of its members during off hours, as Base Hospitals are only open during the day until 1600 hrs. This was deemed a good trade-off, for if our Forces members should ever have to go to a friendly foreign nation to train, Blue Cross would provide if they should get hurt or become ill. Great in theory, but not in practice. We had one member get sick in Delaware, and the first hospital, which was on a pre-vetted approved list provided to us prior to our training, denied the Blue Cross. So, he paid cash, and claimed it later, but therein lies a lesson about buying health insurance before travelling. But the most telling lesson was how long this Emergency Room visit took.

When is an emergency not an urgency?

In Canada, in the majority of Emergency rooms, unless you show up in a small town at 0200 hrs Monday morning, the odds of getting to see a doctor within an hour is slim. Our guy’s visit went like this: After having his Blue Cross card declined, cash paid, processed, and prescription in hand, he was out in 15 minutes. In our system, Health care staff are getting paid the same regardless of how long they take to do their job. I’m not saying they care less, but it is obvious that, when most people finally go to the hospital, an apathetical creep in the sense of urgency develops within the patient’s psyche a sense of helplessness; and because of our institutionalized rationality, we accept it because, really, we don’t have a choice but to wait; wait until you become worse off to move to the front of the line, or just wait, sometimes for hours. I. Was. Aghast.

An emergency room located in a densely populated area got someone who showed up with a really bad flu through in 15 minutes! I’d be inclined to believe our own health care professionals would benefit from an exchange program in the States, would I not be apprehensive of them not coming back.

Lulled into acceptance

I miss my father, but I would miss him more had our system of Health Care in Canada forced him to live far more than a handful of his last days in a hospital. The care community, doctors, nurses, and volunteers gave Dad the kind of final days in his home with Mom I truly believe is out of reach of the majority of Americans who are socially equal in retirement. For many Americans, home, hospital or no care are the choices where the money they can save on taxes comes to the forefront in the decision-making process.

Taking our history, a smaller population with community-driven involvement outside of the big city centers, and our acceptance of giving half our wealth away to the government over our lifetime to provide for us, it is a wonder we do not become more politically involved when political parties make promises which will only increase our ever increasing tax debt.

Here in the States, they haven’t been lulled into socialistic euphoria where the state will provide all (not that Canada or its provinces do by any stretch, unless you’re an immigrant, and not a lifetime working, tax-paying retiree on a pension getting less than a refugee, but that’s another story), and paying for the greater good is only something to grumble about. In spite of their medical hardships, Americans don’t want automatic health care, including all the luggage that comes with it. It’s just not the American way, and definitely not Canadian, eh!

More from Ronald Reagan on socialized medicine

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