Socialized Medicine: The Myth Exposed...

By Canada's courts, no less. A recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada found that nation's hallowed public health-care system to be inequitable and a failure to its citizens, as an article in today's OpinionJournal.com reports.

When George Zeliotis of Quebec was told in 1997 that he would have to wait a year for a replacement for his painful, arthritic hip, he did what every Canadian who's been put on a waiting list does: He got mad. He got even madder when he learned it was against the law to pay for a replacement privately. But instead of heading south to a hospital in Boston or Cleveland, as many Canadians already do, he teamed up to file a lawsuit with Jacques Chaoulli, a Montreal doctor. The duo lost in two provincial courts before their win last week.

The court's decision strikes down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance and is bound to upend similar laws in other provinces. Canada is the only nation other than Cuba and North Korea that bans private health insurance, according to Sally Pipes, head of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco and author of a recent book on Canada's health-care system.

"Access to a waiting list is not access to health care," wrote Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin for the 4-3 Court last week. Canadians wait an average of 17.9 weeks for surgery and other therapeutic treatments, according the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. The waits would be even longer if Canadians didn't have access to the U.S. as a medical-care safety valve. Or, in the case of fortunate elites such as Prime Minister Paul Martin, if they didn't have access to a small private market in some non-core medical services. Mr. Martin's use of a private clinic for his annual checkup set off a political firestorm last year.

The issue of government-run health care in the U.S. first reared its ugly head when the Clinton administration attempted to ram it down the throats of the American people in 1993 and 1994. The initiative, spearheaded by a secret task force run by Madame Hillary (unelected power, at the time) was thwarted by the voters when they turned control of the Congress over to the Republicans. Democrats don't seem to grasp the folly of such a venture as they're too focused on growing the power of the Federal Government over the lives of its citizens.

The larger lesson here is that health care isn't immune from the laws of economics. Politicians can't wave a wand and provide equal coverage for all merely by declaring medical care to be a "right," in the word that is currently popular on the American left.

There are only two ways to allocate any good or service: through prices, as is done in a market economy, or lines dictated by government, as in Canada's system. The socialist claim is that a single-payer system is more equal than one based on prices, but last week's court decision reveals that as an illusion. Or, to put it another way, Canadian health care is equal only in its shared scarcity.

You can no more change the laws of economics than you can change the laws of physics. And when you try, disaster results.

Posted by: Gary at 11:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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