Affordable Health Care
by Walter Williams (October 22, 2008)

Excerpt:

"One of the campaign themes this election cycle is "affordable"
health care. Shouldn't we ask ourselves whether we want the
politicians who brought us the "affordable" housing, that created the
current financial debacle, to now deliver us affordable health care?

Shouldn't we also ask how things turned out in countries where there
is socialized medicine?

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fraser Institute's annual
publication, "Waiting Your Turn," reports that Canada's median
waiting times from a patient's referral by a general practitioner to
treatment by a specialist, depending on the procedure, averages from
five to 40 weeks. The wait for diagnostics, such as MRI or CT, ranges
between four and 28 weeks.

According to Michael Tanner's "The Grass Is Not Always Greener," in
Cato Institute's Policy Analysis (March 18, 2008), the Mayo Clinic
treats more than 7,000 foreign patients a year, the Cleveland Clinic
5,000, Johns Hopkins Hospital treats 6,000, and one out of three
Canadian physicians send a patient to the U.S. for treatment each
year.

If socialized medicine is so great, why do Canadian physicians send
patients to the U.S. and the Canadian government spends over $1
billion each year on health care in our country?.."

Full Article: http://www.CapMag.com/article.asp?ID=5326