Tag Archives: Competition

Videos

Videos explaining what government-run health care is like in Canada

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Here are a few helpful videos of some Canadian health care horror stories.

The Cheryl Baxter Story:

A Short Course in Brain Surgery:

Two Women:

The Lemon:

And one more video from On The Fence Films called “Dead Meat“.

While you watch these videos, keep in mind that these people pay about half their incomes into a socialist system for thirty years. Usually, both adults in the family are working their whole lives to pay into this system. The money is spent by politically correct leftists on politically correct leftist research, such as polygamy studies. The politically correct leftist government grants taxpayer-funded treatments, for their preferred constituents, many of whom do not even pay into the system.

For example, things like breast cancer, in vitro fertilization, contraceptives, abortions, STDs, AIDS, drug rehabilitation and sex changes are well-funded by the government. But since men are politically incorrect in a feminist society, the mortality rate for prostate cancer, which only affects men, is abominably poor compared to countries like the United States. (See this article for a comparison of other health care outcomes).

The take home lesson for us in the United States is that this is a tremendous vote-buying scam. You will have ignorant but well-meaning Christians voting for the Democrats from the time Obamacare passes. Many Christians are typically ignorant of free market capitalism and do not realize that they are trading in their liberty and prosperity for “free health care”.

Christians rationalize their vote for massive government-run social programs as “compassion”, and try not to think about how they are really voting in favor of abortion, same-sex marriage and the end of religious liberty. I find it amusing to talk to Canadians who love free speech and single-payer health care, not realizing that the single-payer health care is the exact thing that sets a nation on the road to restrictions on free speech.

Even Canada is moving towards privatized health care

Here is a post from the American Power blog that cites an LA Times article entitled “In Canada, a Move Toward a Private Healthcare Option“. (H/T Blazing Cat Fur)

Excerpt:

When the pain in Christina Woodkey’s legs became so severe that she could no long hike or cross-country ski, she went to her local health clinic. The Calgary, Canada, resident was told she’d need to see a hip specialist. Because the problem was not life-threatening, however, she’d have to wait about a year.

So wait she did.

In January, the hip doctor told her that a narrowing of the spine was compressing her nerves and causing the pain. She needed a back specialist. The appointment was set for Sept. 30. “When I was given that date, I asked when could I expect to have surgery,” said Woodkey, 72. “They said it would be a year and a half after I had seen this doctor.”

So this month, she drove across the border into Montana and got the $50,000 surgery done in two days.

“I don’t have insurance. We’re not allowed to have private health insurance in Canada,” Woodkey said. “It’s not going to be easy to come up with the money. But I’m happy to say the pain is almost all gone.”

Whereas U.S. healthcare is predominantly a private system paid for by private insurers, things in Canada tend toward the other end of the spectrum: A universal, government-funded health system is only beginning to flirt with private-sector medicine.

[…]“What we have in Canada is access to a government, state-mandated wait list,” said Brian Day, a former Canadian Medical Assn. director who runs a private surgical center in Vancouver. “You cannot force a citizen in a free and democratic society to simply wait for healthcare, and outlaw their ability to extricate themselves from a wait list.”

Be sure and take a look at some of the videos I collected together detailing some of the horror stories.

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News

Is government more efficient than the private sector?

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When it comes to providing quality services at the lowest cost, private firms are very different from government bureaucracies. A private firm has to compete in an open marketplace where consumers are free to shop around for the best deal. So a private firm has to provide more quality at a lower price or consumers will take their business to a competitor! And the owners and employees share in the profits or losses. They have an incentive to cut costs, raise quality and lower prices. They have a stake in pleasing the customer.

But what about government? Do they have competitors that pressure them lower costs and raise quality? Do the people who run the government benefit financially if they please customers? Do employees of the government benefit if they please customers? Do customers have the freedom to buy from someone else if they are not happy with the price or quality of government services?

Consider this Washington Times story. (H/T John Stossel via ECM)

Excerpt:

An audit of the government’s legal aid program for the poor concluded Monday that the purchase of more than $188,000 worth of imported Italian stone to decorate one of the program’s office buildings in Texas was unnecessary and excessive…

The inspector general of the Legal Services Corp.(LSC) said the stone, which adorns three full stories of a newly remodeled Fort Worth office building, “appears only to be decorative in nature” and does not constitute a “reasonable and necessary” expense.

If a private firm wasted money like this, they would go out of business. The directors and employees who run private firms never waste money like this! If they did, the private firm would go out of business. But the government wastes money like this all the time. It’s not their money, after all – it’s your money. Why should they spend it wisely? What’s in it for them?

And they’re aren’t exactly accountable when they get caught wasting taxpayer money, either.

The inspector general quoted officials involved with the Texas program as defending the purchase, saying the high-end imported stone was selected for its beautiful finish and installed as a decorative flourish.

And this applies to government-run health care, too. Why should be expect government to cut health care costs when they have no incentive to be efficient? Private firms have an incentive – to keep their jobs, to be promoted, to get raises, etc. Government has no incentive to be efficient.

News

NHS hospitals infested with a dozen varieties of vermin

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Story from the UK Telegraph. (H/T Secondhand Smoke via ECM)

Excerpt:

Ants in operating theatres and maternity, cockroaches in x-ray and mice in A&E are some of the 30,000 pest infestations in NHS hospitals over the last four years, figures have revealed.

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows NHS hospitals in England have dealt with almost 30,000 pest infestations since 2006. Exterminators were called to deal with black ants, wasps, rodents, cluster flies, biting insects, silver fish, woodlice, bird mites, maggots, pigeons, red spiders, may bugs, mosquitoes, ladybirds, bees, mice and fleas.

The pests were found in all areas of hospitals including patient wards, operating theatres, maternity units, A&E and children’s wards as well as in kitchens, maintenance, offices and staff accommodation. On average 70 exterminators are called out each day to NHS hospitals in England and often deal with more than one infestation at a time.

When the consumers are not the ones paying the bills, and there are no competing vendors, what possible incentive is there for the service providers to provide quality service? There is no inventive, and so there is no quality service.