What with certain Canadians gleefully enabling the liars and the ignorant in the health-care debate going on in the United States, it's nice to see one of Canada's most distinguished experts on health care saying his piece in a major U.S. paper.
As Michael Rachlis points out, "there are lessons to be learned" by simply observing the experiences of other countries. But sadly, there's woefully too little of that learning going on in the U.S. regarding health-care systems.
The best part of Rachlis's L.A. Times piece is in the penultimate paragraph, where he notes the "traditional American ignorance of what happens north of the border, which makes it easy to mislead people. Boilerplate anti-government rhetoric does the same. The U.S. media, legislators and even presidents have claimed that our 'socialized' system doesn't let us choose our own doctors. In fact, Canadians have free choice of physicians. It's Americans these days who are restricted to 'in-plan' doctors.
"Unfortunately, many Americans won't get to hear the straight goods because vested interests are promoting a caricature of the Canadian experience."
(A tip o' the hat to Emily at Sozadee for making me aware of Rachlis's essay.)
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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3 comments:
Thx!
I have relayed your remarks to Emily via email, and linked this thread of yours to mine.
Drifted in from MadMike's site.
Speaking of ignorance on how things work outside the United States I have to look no further than my siblings.
I have two brothers with one firmly believing that any reform on the existing system is an attempt to socialize health care in America. That our grandmother depended on Medicare in her last few years of life completely escapes him. Of course he is a full fledged biblethumper believing that the Rapture will happen any minute and Sarah Palin will leaded the righteous onward to victory over unAmerican ideas.
Even if the "straight goods" were being broadcast over television 24/7 he would still believe the propaganda put out by rightwingers that you guys and gals up in Canada are dying in the hundreds waiting for basic medical services.
Despite what some liberals down here in the States have said about Obama criticizing him for not going far enough with a single-payer plan something like you guys have up there he is fighting a near desperate fight against "traditional American ignorance" that prohibit anything like that coming to pass.
Beach: I agree that a single-payer system would be difficult to sell, perhaps too difficult. A good public option may seem like too little to some people, but it's possible. So it's probably the best practical route to take right now. I'm working on a post making precisely this point.
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