Conservatives for Patients' Rights? You Are Kidding, Right?

Like most of you, probably, I have become increasingly sick of the commercials being aired by the CPR talking, almost exclusively, about waiting lines in Canada. What this group has done, is highlighted some cases of people who were let down by a "Government run" health care system. I am not going to argue whether or not those people were let down, let us assume they were. Not a single, that is right, not a single universal health care advocate claims that a universal system would be perfect. We know, that occasionally, people will be let down by their health care system, regardless of what system that is.

So where this conversation should really be held, is on the basis of which system lets down fewer people, and which system does so fairly. For instance, conservatives love to bring up the waiting lines in Canada as a major reason not to switch to a single-payer system. First off, it is a myth that waiting lines in Canada are worse than in the US. If your procedure is urgently needed, it is provided. Only elective surgeries are put on hold in order to take care of the urgent needs first. And you know what? Waiting lines in the US do not include all the people that never get in line because they have no insurance and know they will not get care. Simply put, waiting lines in the US, if you include those people, are probably far worse than in Canada. The only difference is that someone went around our waiting line and said, "All those with lots of money, please come to the front." Our lines are based on who can afford the procedure, Canada's are based on who needs it most.

For every person the CPR finds who is unhappy with a "Government run" health care system, we can find 50, or 100, who are unhappy with ours. And there is one thing that is more telling than any personal story whatsoever, and that is the numbers. So please, go do some research. Check out how much money per capita we spend on health care compared to Canada, or the UK, or, gasp, France. Check out how many people we have uninsured compared to them (hint: they're number is infinitely closer to zero than ours is). Check out what percentage of our uninsured are working full time. Check out where our nation, the most prosperous in the world, stands on life expectancy. Check out where we stand on infant mortality rates. I am not going to give you these statistics because I want you to google them. It is that easy. Literally search "Where does the US stand on life expectancy compared to other nations?" You'll get plenty of results.

UPDATE: Thanks go out to pkdu over at democraticunderground.com for pointing out this tidbit of information about the CPR spokesman and the health care company he created:

which company did he create ? Columbia/HCA

and what fine did Columbia/HCA pay in Dec 2000 " pleaded guilty to criminal conduct and paid out $840m in criminal fines, civil penalties and damages for alleged unlawful billing practices in what the US government described as 'the largest government fraud settlement ever reached by the Justice Department'."
http://www.againstcorruption.org/briberycase.asp?id=841

This astroturf frontman should be thanking his lucky stars every day he's not in prison.

That makes perfect sense. If you are planning on convincing American's of the "horrors" of universal health care, you need someone that knows a thing or two about defrauding the general public. Also, if you read the link, this guys hatred for the British health care system might have something to do with the fact that his company was one of the bidders to be a part of it, they just lost the bid.