Michael Moore's scathing documentary on health care in America is hitting theaters at the end of the month. This week, health insurance companies charged that the film is biased. "We need a uniquely American solution in which the public and private sectors work together to make sure that everyone has high-quality, affordable healthcare," Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of America's Health Insurance Plans, the largest trade group representing the health insurance industry, told UPI. "Washington and the states should take immediate action to ensure that every American has healthcare coverage. … [T]he American people do not support a government takeover of the entire healthcare system because they know that means long waits for rationed care."
Moore's documentary movie, sure to be a massive hit, supports the creation of a Canadian-style health care system in the U.S. A few things we probably won't hear about Canada's system from the movie:
- The New York Times reports that Canada's public health system leaves so many patients unsatisfied that a health industry is booming in the country. Canadians are flocking to surgeons who charge a fee for their services, because the public health system is "breaking down." "Private clinics are opening around the country by an estimated one a week …"
- Canadians wait an average of 17.9 weeks for surgery and other therapeutic treatments, according the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.
- In 2005, Canada's Supreme Court ruled that the Canadian health care system produces inequality. The case received attention in the Wall Street Journal:
"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," Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin wrote in the court's 4-3 opinion.
Moore's movie already has a lot of people talking. But the film likely won't address the problems associated with outlawing health insuarance — or what is motivating so many Canadians to shop for health care.
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