The healthcare debate can make you sick

Oh good, it's healthcare ad time again. This sure won't get petty and pedantic in a hurry like it always does. This time our journey begins with an ad, sponsored by Patients United Now, where Canadian ex-pat Shona Holmes rails against the government healthcare system that would have left her to die of a brain tumor had she not come to America for treatment. "Now," says an ominous narrator, "Washington wants to bring Canadian-style healthcare to the U.S." If this were true, it would be awful. Canada is the only industrialized democracy in the world where people can't seek health insurance outside the government monopoly, even for medically necessary services. But President Obama's plan has been described as "an optional, government-run plan to compete with private insurers," and the total shutout of single-payer advocates is a sign that the only things we're importing from Canada are oil, beer and the occasional Mark McKinney television pilot. In any case, the Campaign Media Analysis Group says that $31 million has already been spent on healthcare advertising this year, with more coming down the pike. I hope an assisted suicide plan is in the works, because I'll probably want to kill myself by the time these jackasses are through haranguing each other.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

July 14, 2009 in Canada, Health, Kiefaber | Permalink