The Roundup: Socialized Healthcare Edition

Andrew Coyne: It’s time the provinces were brought to account on health-care wait times 
Andrew Coyne dewlls on the problem of long waiting times in Canada. Such a thing is unacceptable. However, the decision to abolish Canada's public insurance system is more unacceptable.

"To be clear, between shortening wait times and abolis hing the public insurance monopoly, the first is vastly preferable. Insurance markets are tricky things, especially for something like health care where, if you will, the consumer is also the product. Left to themselves, insurance providers would be tempted to refuse coverage to people they think are likely to need it. For their part, consumers might choose not to pay for insurance as long as they were well, only doing so when they get sick."

However, wait times are actually not that bad in most countries with socialized healthcare.


David Frum: Victims Without Insurance

"In this charitable country, no doubt funds will be found for Caleb Medley and his family. But what if Caleb hadn't been shot in a spectacular crime? What if he'd just been injured in an ordinary accident or succumbed to an ordinary disease ? The most likely answer is that his hospital would absorb a lot of the cost and find ways to load that cost onto other paying customers - socialized medicine, American-style."

Mitt Romney Calls for the U.S. to Copy Israel's Big-Government Single-Payer Health System

The AARP busts 5 myths about Canada's healthcare system.