The Canadian province of Ontario is a beautiful place booming not only with maple syrup and Zambonis, but with the industry and natural resources that keep Canada’s economy afloat. Its capital city of Toronto is the most populated in all of Canada and serves as its economic center, much like New York City in the United States. However, Ontario (along with the rest of Canada) is facing a crippling problem in the form of universal health care. As in America, people are free to spend their money on whatever it is they wish, as long as it is within the law. However, private health care is outlawed, prohibiting anyone from spending any money to finance their own bodies or well-being. Only the government is allowed to pay for medically necessary care. Some see this as a great idea, because “you shouldn’t have to worry about money when you need health care.” Some see this as a bad idea because they’re dying without proper medical care.
Ask any Canadian and they will tell you that the government does not care how long you wait. Proper, timely care is delayed and you will be cared for “sooner or later.” Let’s say for example your doctor has discovered an abnormality in your brain and needs to schedule an MRI to see exactly which areas are affected and see if and how quickly it is spreading. This is a very time-sensitive procedure and needs to be done as soon as possible. With a partial-private system, like we have in the U.S., this will take anywhere from one to five days. In Canada, it will take an average of two-and-a-half months, with extreme waits being four-and-a-half months, just to get the first MRI. After this, if more MRIs are required or a neurosurgeon is needed, the waiting period restarts again. It has nothing to do with the quality of Canadian doctors; it is simply the fact that the government controls this and it is severely backed up.
These types of patients are increasingly coming to the U.S. for these sorts of timely procedures that save lives. If the United States adopts this system, where will we go? Mexico? Europe? On top of this, if, as a Canadian citizen, you go to the U.S. to get medical care, the government will not reimburse you without prior written permission (which they clearly will not give because they would be losing your “business”). Even if you are to get this permission, the process for approval is approximately eight months, which completely defeats the purpose.
But, hey ... that’s fine, because it’s free, right? Wrong. The money comes from somewhere, and that somewhere is taxes, with the average taxpayer spending approximately $4,867 per year. There have been several cases challenging the government’s complete ban of private health care that have gone all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court, wasting more of the taxpayers’ dollars with lawsuits that without universal health care would have been avoided in the first place. Almost all of these have proved favorable for the private citizens and not the government. I find it funny that, while the Canadian health care system is falling apart, liberal America is pushing very hard to put into place a system almost identical to the one that is in shambles in Canada. In a system designed to help the lower class, only those with money will be able to make the costly travel and private medical investments to receive the care they need.
Editor’s Note: Columns granted by the Editorial Board to the three political groups on campus—the College Republicans, College Libertarians, and Progressive Student Alliance—rotate weekly in the opinion section of The Polytechnic.
