From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: Medicine & Liberty
Date: 4 Oct 92 18:53:55 GMT
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: The Bates Motel

jpd10@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Michael Surkan) writes:
>  
>  Reading many of the postings regarding Canada's medicare I am 
>amazed at how universally such a socialized system is praised.

Other than the basic health insurance, isn't everything else private?
So far, nobody else has come up with an alternative private-only
formula that could assure universal coverage ... if you have a beef
with real socialized medicine, try Soc.culture.british ... (-;

The idea behind universal coverage is to get the amortization of risks
and costs only achievable by economy of scale, i.e., the Law of Big
Numbers. (-; For example, in a population of 26 Million in Canada
versus the workforce of Amdahl in Sunnyvale, CA and even other pools
covered by your insurer, many of the purported risk groups like, say,
skydivers would disappear in the roundoff error as actuarial tables
are calculated.

Now, I've seen arguments (here in the United States (-;) that certain
individuals should be allowed to go without health insurance -- up to
20 years ago, when everyone paid cash and health insurance was a frill
that is viable ... with the advent of medical and drug technology, one
would be personally reckless to do so in light of these costs and from
another perspective, a social menace if one considers the implications
of medical bankruptcy (who doesn't get paid?  The bank?  Visa?  Their
landlord?) or being treated at a public hospital out of the public
purse, as with the uninsured mobs crowding Emergency Wards across
the U.S. partly due to having to let simple conditions compound into
serious matters -- add on top of that penalty to overall productivity
from the ensuing fallout (no person is an island in a society).

Idle American facilities taking Canadian health insurance at domestic
rates is not uncommon ...  In Florida, a favourite sunning spot for
Quebecois, hospitals and clinics in and near "Little Montreal" are
taking Quebec retirees and tourists at La Regie de L'Assurance Sante's
fee schedule because they have excess capacity for paying customers.
In effect, La Regie's money is helping to pay for uninsured Americans
piled up in Emergency wards out back of the same hospitals ...
(source: La Presse, Montreal's largest French daily, mid-January)

>  Medicare is turning Canadians into honourless spies, who
>make it their business to keep their noses in each other's
>affairs. After all, if it is a burden on everyone to pay for
>medical treatment of lung cancer victims, then it makes
>perfect sense to prevent lung cancer from going out of
>control by banning cigarettes and tobacco. 

This hypothetical 1984 scenario would be viable with a private health
insurance scenario where if you had an army of private eyes and spies
to locate every smoker, drinker, etc.  Just consider that ciggie taxes
in Canada are added health premiums for smokers ... being a nonsmoker,
I'm glad that I'm not paying for their habits ...

>What's next? Will the country decide that in the interests of keeping
>medical costs under control they are going to ban (ie. take away
>someone's right to choose) ice cream and cholesterol laden foods?
>Why not ban motorcycles, since the mangled bodies coming out of the
>accidents are costing tax payers so much to fix up.

People have the freedom to do as they chose as they have with spending
their health insurance benefits.  The government has no business in the
control of either, and they don't in Canada the last time that I looked.
Nothing that I have read about American HMO's, for example, can convince
me that I have more choice than I would with pure but public insurance
in Canada ... in Canada, I have to personally choose to get a checkup,
but in an HMO I would be required as part of the agreement ...

gld
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare				
> gld@cunixB.cc.columbia.EDU		Oct 26/92: Just say "OUI!"
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			(Let's worry about the economy!)
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