In a new book by Sally C. Pipes entitled, The Truth About Obamacare, we learn about the importance of repealing Obama’s Universal Healthcare legislation and why it still doesn’t cover everyone, would have lowered the quality of our healthcare, increased our healthcare costs, skyrocketed our national debt and eliminated the last place on earth that people on this planet could go to get top quality healthcare.
The truth is, politicians from other countries that have a national health care system, the same countries Obama pointed to as examples of what we should aspire to be, come to the United States to have surgery done.
Danny Williams, the Premier of the Canadian province of Newfoundland traveled to Miami for heart valve surgery. When asked why he didn’t have the procedure done in his own country where health care is “free” he replied, “This was my heart, my choice and my health.”
In 2007, former Liberal Member of Parliament Belinda Stronach traveled to California for a late-stage breast cancer surgery even though while she was in office, she opposed any privatization of health care.
Tens of thousands of Canadians come to the U.S. to spend their own money here to receive health care even though they pay taxes in Canada for it. Thousands of other foreigners from around the world make the trip every year.
The truth is, politicians are only interested in getting re-elected. The easiest way to do that is to promise everyone something for nothing, in this case, universal health care coverage for everyone with lower costs and better quality. That ridiculous and impossible promise of providing more while costing less, is what buys the votes.
However, in every country where that promise has been implemented, the results have been disastrous including long waiting lists, higher death rates, substandard hospitals, equipment and doctors. The politicians are willing to risk your life to get votes, but not their own life, so when they get sick they come to the U.S. for medical care.
Until now.
For example, right now the United States is the world leader in treating cancer. Compared to Europeans and Canadians, Americans have a better survival rate – five years after diagnosis – for 13 out of 16 of the most common cancers. The survival rate for American women with breast cancer is 83.9%, while in Britain it’s just 69.7%. Men with prostate cancer have a 91.9% survival rate in the U.S., a 73.7% chance in France and only a 50/50 chance in Britain at 51.1%. American men and women have a 35% more likely chance to survive colon cancer than British citizens.
If we let Obamacare remain law, we can watch all those U.S. citizen survival rates decline down to those in France and Britain. Everyone on earth will lose access to the last bastion of excellent health care. The U.S. will no longer be the primary creator of cutting-edge, ground breaking medicines that are eventually available for everyone around the world. We are were it. Now we will begin the slow, decades long decline to join the ranks of medically impoverished countries all over the world who have adopted a “free” national health care system.
I have only begun to read the book, but some excerpts follow (italics are mine):
- Since new medicines are expensive, state-run health care plans don’t cover them right away. That means people who might have been saved by these medicines have to die instead because they were denied the option of having access to the medications. So which would you choose? Having to pay a lot out of your own pocket for a brand new medicine that could keep you alive, or die waiting to get it for free from your government? Medicine is expensive, at least initially, in order to recoup the billions of dollars in research and development and testing that went into it. Over time, the medicine drops in price and will become easily affordable. In state-run health care, people will die while they wait for it to get cheaper.
- Canada ranks 26th out of 30 countries for number of doctors per thousand people. It has been falling steadily since 1970 when government took over health care. Back then, Canada ranked 4th. When a country nationalizes health care, a shortage of doctors develops. Government regulations and controls limit what a doctor can earn, and as a result, fewer kids want to grow up to be doctors and choose other careers instead. The cost to become a doctor is enormous and is only worth it if one can expect to make the money back. It takes decades, but as doctors retire and new doctors are never added, the country suffers from a doctor shortage making waiting lists even longer. In addition, doctors with less experience and less knowledge are often imported from other countries, like India, causing the quality of care to decline as well.
- In 2009, British newspapers reported the story of Ian Boynton, a former soldier who was forced to pull out thirteen of his own teeth with a pair of pliers after thirty failed attempts to find a dentist through the National Health Service.
- Right now, a shortage of hospital beds and midwives is forcing thousands of mothers to give birth in hospital hallways, bathrooms and even elevators. In 2008 alone, there were 4,000 cases of expectant mothers in British hospitals having to give birth in places other than maternity wards.
- The story is the same in France, which is regularly stretched to its limits, and in Sweden. There, some patients stuck on waiting lists have resorted to going to veterinarians who operate in the private market and are plentiful in supply. Many Swedes go to neighboring countries for dental care, even though they’ve paid taxes for the service at home.
- In 2005, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down a ruling in Quebec banning private medical insurance stating, “Access to a waiting list is not access to health care.”
I am only just beginning to read this book, but I urge everyone to read it and finally understand what is in this law and how it is going to reduce our quality of life, and possibly death.
Or as the former Senate Majority Leader in Congress, Nancy Pelosi so stupidly and imbecilically said about the Obamacare law, “We have to pass the bill, to see what is in it.”
What’s in the bill is a decline in care, a decline in new drugs and medical techniques, an increase in wait time leading to an increase in deaths…and yes, the government will choose who lives and dies, not you…not anymore. You are not in charge of your medical care any longer. People whine about the “death panels” but if you stop and think for a moment you have to agree that the government is not going to just pay unlimited amounts of money to keep everyone alive for as long as possible by using every medical technique and drug available. That would be trillions and trillions of dollars, more dollars than exist on the planet.
The government will simply create a risk analysis that will look at your specific medical situation which considers the outcomes of those who have had the same situation in the past, and determine…basically…if they would just be throwing good money after bad because odds are, according to historical evidence, you’re gonna die regardless of the treatment. That is all you will become…a variable in a mathematical algorithm. If the numbers don’t pan out, you will be denied additional procedures or medicines and you will die. That simple.
What if you could pay for the medicines or the surgery yourself and survive? What if there were experimental drugs that showed some promise and might give you another few years? What if someone was willing to donate an organ to you and give you a new lease on life? Too bad, so sad. That is not how Obamacare or any other nationalized healthcare system works. You have surrendered all health decisions to the State. The government decides if you live or die. It’s that simple. So is it a death panel? Hmmmm, no…more like a death computation. Now you’re just a number in a risk analysis in a program in a computer in an air conditioned network data center somewhere in D.C.
So much for the once great United States of America.
Categories: Healthcare Reform, Socialism
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