Repeat after me, America: “SACRED COW”…
In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism. They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections. After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority. This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you’ve calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state.
I nearly forgot to add – she’ll be a union cow. You pay guaranteed wages, they get guaranteed patients.
Don’t worry. You’ll learn to love her so much no politician will dare speak out against her.
More – “The main reason socialists love public health care….”
Kate for PM!
Yep Kate, I can see it’s really all about Unions in US Health care. It’s the Unions last big chance to score big in the USA. Thanks for the article. Oh, and by the way, it was the only reason Obama endorsed Venezuela’s Zelaya. Zelaya was endorsed by their unions, the opposition was not. That’s why the AFL-CIO backed Zelaya. Obama is a union tool.
Ken
Hope you all realise how lucky you are to have her.
From an foreigner I can’t think of any Canadian that would do you a better job. Kate could be ably assisted by Ezra Levant to restore the legal system, how about recalling Steyn to do foreign affairs and I’m sure Kathy would do Law and order.
But I must be careful not to be accused of foreign intervention and nation building here.
In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism.
Not being re-elected isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a politician that goes against the will of the people in America.
The reason for the 2nd Amendment is so that the American people can shoot the tyrants.
I said it before – the Canadian healthcare racket really only works well for the unions. Had I relied on the Canadian healthcare system I would have been permanently disabled. One never really knows how bad the system is until you actually have a health crisis and need services. And it is far from free – we are paying dearly for it!
There is much merit to McCarthy’s analysis.
These leftist elites although what we would define as stupid have a century long legacy of playing the long game.
Here in Canada, the leftist legacy, entrenched in the swivellel service and the CBC, is blatantly obvious with the current minority government. Dismantling that with even a majority government could prove difficult and possibly impossible.
The 3 Canadian Federal Ministries that are most obvious are Environment, Justice and Attorney General. Despite the current elected government’s inclinations, these Trudopean androids continue to crank out Troika propaganda/policy at taxpayer expense.
Canada needs a Federal “Common Sense Revolution”.
The usual suspects will predictably howl about that but McSquinty gained power by massive union financing/support and once in power promptly handed administration of the province to those unions.
Lorenzo is bang on “with commenting the Canadian health care racket really only works well for the unions”. We know this from personal experience.
sasquatch, couldn’t have said it better. Ditto, ditto and ditto and forty years of dealing with bureaucrats makes me want to add another ditto just to cover all the bases.
Just to give you an idea of the size of Canada’s public employees here are some Statistics Canada figures.
“Total wages and salaries paid in the public sector rose 2.6% during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
Public sector employment increased 0.5%, on a seasonally adjusted basis, between the third and fourth quarters of 2009. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the public sector in Canada had an average of nearly 3.6 million employees. 20.5% of the full workforce.
In 1st quarter 2007 there were just under 3,350,000 employees.”
As we see in the US and Europe the growth of the public sector with its powerful unions combined with its ever growing dependent citizens eventually kills the host.
A perfect example is McGuinty and the Ontario Teachers Union with its fat 100 billion pension fund. With declining enrolment he is implementing full time kindergarten, of course with the concommitant hiring of new teachers, to turn out more little robots entrenched in the socialist system at the cost of $1.5 billion annually.
Dommy Douglas was just smarter than us conservatives this study now proves it.
Kate I hope you take this one on.
CNN; Liberals and Atheists have higher IQs
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html
Here’s why the unions love it: http://www.clangmann.net/?p=27
US health care won’t get cheaper if its public…
Claude:
Intelligence does not equal smart.
The wacky professor who went on a killing spree had an IQ of 180. Was she smart? No!
People with varying degrees of ADD are routinely tested with higher IQ’s.
What we call nerds obviously have the God-given gift of a higher intelligence.
Somehow, though, they are as incomplete as any other human being.
Kate, your “Zero Tier” piece is a gem. Thank you.
Is Cupe threatening the “dramatic progress” made on wait-times? According to the Fraser Institute Report Waiting Your Turn (.pdf), the average wait-time in 2007 in SK from referral by a GP to treatment was 27.3 weeks—more than half a year. Anyone know what it is now after a “dramatic improvement”? (Can’t trust CUPE’s mention of reduced times for two procedures only. Notice also their implication that times were reduced due to their cooperation—cooperation that just might cease if they don’t get their way in the current contract negotions—, and their omitting to mention the Supreme Court order to do so.)
Cupe: “Nice little wait-list ya got there. Shame anything should happen to it.”
I wonder what the Supreme Court would have to say about a public employees union threatening a court-mandated reduction in wait-times.
Correction: it is the median wait-time, not the average, in 2007 in SK from referral by a GP to treatment that was 27.3 weeks. My apologies.
What CUPE fails to mention is that cuts to waiting times was aided by socialism too. The BC system pays carbon tax at 25 bucks a ton and we pay them to do surgeries they can’t afford to do. We are the capatalists bailing out socialism. We should just hire the medical staff that are good instead.
“the Canadian healthcare racket really only works well for the unions. ”
Not quite. It also works very well for the massive numbers of bureaucrats who run the HCS as Management. There are so many layers of management you’d swear this was a competitive corporation vying desperately for clients.
And those “managers” are very well paid, many of them collect salaries larger than doctors,and for what,paper shuffling.Anyone here with experience in the civil service is well aware of the tendency to grow the bureau.The reason is because larger the work force in any particular department, the larger the managers salary.Follow the money.
The HCS is a great dumping ground for political hacks with not much talent or ability, but loads of loyalty to the political Party in power.
Take a close look at your local Health Boards, you’ll find dozens if not hundreds of bureaucrats with very little to do, but with sterling Party connections. We got a brief look at the workings of the local health bureaucracy a few years ago when we met a person who was a “communications spokesperson” for the health board. The duties of this person was to communicate with the media. Salary, six figures, more than some doctors were making.
We have socialized medicine in Canada, and the emphasis is on “SOCIALIST”,make no mistake.
The main reason politicians fear private incursion into the health care racket,is that the gross inefficiencies would be exposed and voters would rightly ask,”what the hell have you been doing to us all this time”!
And,thousands of Party faithful would lose their well paid jobs and have to make it in the real world,where most simply wouldn’t make it.
Health care is the government version of “Big Auto”, just as inefficient,just as bloated, and just as loaded with inept managers.
Barry’s Health Care budget scam numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs&feature=player_embedded
And remember his Administration is spending at a deficit rate 350% greater than Harper & Flaherty are spending us into debt.
Wonder how Americans feel now about his Hopey Changey thingy.
Like all socialist incursions aimed at egalitarian outcomes, socialist health care works well for those who contribute less into the pool than what they receive. IOW, parasites over producers. Unions, although they would never admit to it, actually do better outside of socialist systems if their long term goal is to assure better working conditions for their members. Their political bent has been so thoroughly tainted with the hatred and resentment from the NDP/left-lib mindsets, they collectively aren’t allowed an alternative opinion. They may do well monetarily, but their work environments tend to be psychologically toxic.
As a Canadian living in the US, I have no problem stating that I certainly have better access to better quality health care in the US than what I experienced in Canada. I paid a lot of tax for poor to mediocre service in Canada and now I pay hefty premiums and a lot of deductible for excellent service. That’s the choice.
If Obama, the (Marxist, Progressive, Communist, Socialist, Fascist – pick one, they all fit) is successful in ramming this through, its insidiousness will destroy and demonize all private elements of the US system such that Americans will eventually demand single pay for its (relative to Obamacare) administrative simplicity and cost effectiveness. Don’t take my word for it, Obama has said as much.
Hey, didn’t you get the memo:
1. Look at your T4 slip.
2. Write out a check for the amount of ‘earned income’ to Canada Revenue Agency.
3. Go away and die.
Health ‘care’ the socialist way…
see:
Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2005 SCC 35, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791
Human rights — Right to life and to personal inviolability — Waiting times in public health system — Provincial legislation prohibiting Quebec residents from taking out insurance to obtain in private sector health care services already available under Quebec’s public health care plan — Prohibition depriving Quebec residents of access to private health care services not coming with waiting times inherent in public system — Whether prohibition infringing rights to life and to personal inviolability guaranteed by s. 1 of Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms — If so, whether infringement can be justified under s. 9.1 of Charter — Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, R.S.Q., c. C‑12, ss. 1, 9.1 — Health Insurance Act, R.S.Q., c. A‑29, s. 15 — Hospital Insurance Act, R.S.Q., c. A‑28, s. 11.
Constitutional law — Charter of Rights — Right to life, liberty and security of person — Fundamental justice — Waiting times in public health system — Provincial legislation prohibiting Quebec residents from taking out insurance to obtain in private sector health care services already available under Quebec’s public health care plan — Prohibition depriving Quebec residents of access to private health care services not coming with waiting times inherent in public system — Whether prohibition constituting deprivation of rights to life, liberty and security of person guaranteed by s. 7 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, if so, whether deprivation in accordance with principles of fundamental justice — If there violation, whether it can be justified under s. 1 of Charter — Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ss. 1, 7 — Health Insurance Act, R.S.Q., c. A‑29, s. 15 — Hospital Insurance Act, R.S.Q., c. A‑28, s. 11.
Repeat procedure in other provinces until bankrupt…
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
In our survey of health insurance legislation and regulations, we found that regulation of physicians’ ability to practise in the privately funded sector is complex and diverse across Canada’s 10 provinces. We found multiple layers of different kinds of regulation that seem to have as their primary objective not to make private practice illegal but rather to prevent the development of a private sector that depends on subsidy from the public sector.
So physicians can opt out, they just can’t be publicly subsidized. Sounds fair to me. Just what is the angry right teabagging fringe’s problem with that?
phil: what a great selling point…you should take that up with Danny Williams!
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Claude @ 12:19, it’s liberals and atheists who created IQ tests. What do you expect them to do? Show that their creators were inferior?
Phil, you’re welcome to wait in an emergency room for thirty-four hours or on a gurney in cold and filthy hallway for days or scout around for a competent physician. That’s the beauty of our system.
Obama is like an enormous child trying to wheedle a toy out of an exasperated adult. His plan won’t work but he doesn’t care. In his eyes, the US- the only country where an empty-suit like him can make it- must fall.
Claude @ 12:19, it’s liberals and atheists who created IQ tests. What do you expect them to do? Show that their creators were inferior?
I always knew mensa was bogus.
Presently my wife is in Hospital recovering from Emergency Surgery in Arizona…
The saga began when she developed a sharp pain in her right Side. I took her to the Emergency room @ 12:30 PM (clogged) but by 2:45pm she was prepped for a 5:00Pm Cat scan… by 6:00pm she was diagnosed with appendicitis (she is 70) and the Operation was scheduled @ 8:00PM. The appendix ruptured during operation…she is recovering well, but still in Hospital draining infection
My total cost for her care in the Hospital, regardless of her length of stay, (she has Medicare A & B) was $1,100.
Try that in small town Sask…..
BTW: No Hospital Parking Fees, Phone fees, or Television rental.
She has a scheduled EYE surgery (Graves) for March 09… but that may be pushed down the Road..
Health care must be universal and publicly funded. Period. Be it the unions or individuals, this must be fought for tooth and nail before it is eroded any further by right wing and corporate profit for care groups.
Look at Saskatchewan politics for the last few decades: there are so many government empoyees that they are a very significant voting bloc.
The Democrats are simply hiring voters who will vote Democrat because of their socialist greed and self interest.
When it comes to the scam called health-care I want all the money defrauded from me by various Canadian governments BACK, every cent.
T: “Health care must be universal and publicly funded. Period. Be it the unions or individuals, this must be fought for tooth and nail before it is eroded any further by right wing and corporate profit for care groups.”
Two sets of questions for T:
(1) How much should we spend on this purely public, universal system that you talk about? Should we borrow if it becomes necessary to do so, or should we strictly limit how much care is available?
(2) If the Canadian health care system has already eroded, as you acknowledge, and yet it has remained publicly funded and universal rather than two-tier, why has this erosion taken place? You seem to be acknowledging that private involvement in the health care system isn’t what caused the erosion, since the system is still single-tier.
I think the problem may be more complicated than your dogmatic “Period” implies. But I await your replies.