Cognitive Dissonance on What Is Seen and What Is Unseen, or, Kossacks Need Slaves
Over at DailyKos, Edger seems quite pragmatic about his Canadian health care system:
Canada's medical system is a single payer system as many of you know. The monthly premium for a single person is about $40.Two years ago I developed a bladder infection, so I walked across the parking lot from work to a walk in clinic on my coffee break to see a doctor. The wait was about ten minutes. I presented my medical id card, saw the doctor, was diagnosed, and she wrote a prescription for antibiotics that cost me $18.
There was no bill for the doctor visit. It was covered.
He goes on and points out all the awesome things medical socialism got him:
- kidney ultrasound
- consultation to discuss the ultrasound and to schedule a surgical consult
- surgical consult
- kidney removal plus three days in the hospital
He closes by saying, "Total cost to me? $18.00, above and beyond my regular medical premiums."
In the comments, DiegoUK relates a similar story and says, "Cost to me? Not one red cent. It all comes out of my taxes." (Bonus points for stating "Heath care is a right, not a privilege.")
unclejohn says, "[Massman] paid high taxes for public services that [he] actually used and benefited from. If [he] were to buy those services in the private sector, as Americans are forced to do, they would have cost [him] much more."
And finally, Barcelona says:
Where are the ads targeting each and every individual obstructionist Senator and Congressman and making the following simple point: (S)He has a gold-plated health insurance and (s)he doesn't pay a dime for it. When (s)he gets sick, YOU pay for his doctor's visit, his tests, his state-of-the art surgery by the best surgeons in the best hospitals in the country. YOU. Your tax hard-earned money, your tax dollars, the money you don't have to afford even the most god-awfully inadequate, pre-existing-condition-and-gazillion-exclusion laden health insurance. YOU.
The closest thing to a ray of rational light in this intellectual coal mine comes from The Jester, who says, "None of the 50+ million without health insurance magically get medical care FOR FREE, it's just spread out over all taxpayers."
Barcelona's rant is particularly interesting since that's exactly what socialized health care does to everyone. It forces ME to subsidize YOUR shitty health. But that's only objectionable when an elite get the benefit.
I fucking hate these people.
Comments
Anyone relating a favorable experience in the Canadian "health care" system is probably very lucky or not entirely honest.
I live in Calgary, a moderately large Canadian city (pop: 1M). It's almost impossible to find a family doctor in town. Waits at walk-in clinics can last hours. A wait in the ER, if you aren't demonstrably dying, can last an entire day and even then you may not get any kind of useful service.
Posted by: KW | August 6, 2009 01:13 AM