by Jerry Agar

Suppose your mother was dying - right there before your eyes.  Would you call the emergency people who could get there the quickest, and would you then take her to the place that had the best chance to save her?

Of course you would.

Suppose you were Canadian. 

Perhaps you are thinking that being Canadian would be a big advantage, since you would not have to worry about cost. And rather than dealing with evil health insurance companies who are only interested in what Nancy Pelosi calls "immoral profits," you would be dealing with caring civil servants who were putting people over profit.

Or not.

When Pearl Gendron of Dundee, Ontario was found unconscious in the living room, her daughter called the nearest emergency service, which is in New York state.  The EMTs believed that Pearl would not survive the 40 minute drive to the nearest Canadian hospital, so they took her to Fort Covington, New York, where her life was saved.  That was the good news.

The bad news is that she has a huge hospital bill that her government insurance refuses to pay.  May I repeat that?  Government insurance refuses to pay.  She went out of system, supposedly.  Government health care is like a great big HMO with a monopoly.

The Montreal Gazette (linked above) reports, "Marc Lortie, a spokesperson for the RAMQ, explained that people who receive treatment outside of the province are reimbursed for the cost a similar procedure would have cost in Quebec, as determined by the government. So if an X-ray costs $1,000 in the U.S., and only $100 in Quebec, then $100 will be paid out to the patient."

The key phrase is "as determined by the government."  Perhaps $1,000 is too high for an X-ray.  Perhaps $100 is right.  I don't know.  Does the government?  More doctors in the USA are turning down Medicare patients because the government won't pay what it costs, and the doctor loses money.  Price controls typically ignore actual cost.

Canada also controls cost by not providing equipment and service.  Even Canadian doctors agree that actress Natasha Richardson would have a had a better chance of survival if she had been skiing in the United States.  That is because we have more and better facilities. 

A spokesperson for the Canadian system recommended Gendron get better insurance.  As a former Canadian, I am unclear on how she would do that.  They don't have private insurance.  Is he suggesting that she carry insurance for American health care, since the Canadian system can't serve her?  He certainly seems to be saying that, for Canadians of limited financial means, they resign themselves to the Canadian system - with dire results.