Universal Health Care Can Kill

(Buffalo, New York) If one traverses the utopian appeal of government-run health care and looks at the actual results, experiences like Lindsay McCreith's emerge.

His case has potential repercussions on both sides of the border as pressure grows for health reform.

It started when McCreith, a resident of Newmarket, north of Toronto, suffered a seizure last year. He was told in Canada he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI to rule out a malignant tumor.

Rather than wait, McCreith, 66, quickly arranged a trip to Buffalo for a scan. The MRI confirmed his worst fears -- a cancerous growth that a Buffalo neurosurgeon removed a few weeks later.

"If I had been patient, I'd probably be disabled or dead today," McCreith said.

The cost of McCreith's medical care in the U.S. came to $45,000. He applied for reimbursement under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan but was rejected since he failed to have pre-approval. Note that pre-approval can take months to receive.

Consequently, McCreith is suing the Ontario government to make it legal for citizens to obtain private health insurance. Currently, patients are prohibited from buying private insurance. Opponents of a private sector choice in health care fear a two-tiered system will evolve and be detrimental to the public system. McCreith's suit claims that his constitutional right to life, liberty and security is being denied.

Agreed, McCreith's experience is anecdotal but the problem with long waiting times for care under socialized medical schemes is a well-known complaint. Look at reports from Britain and Australia, along with Canada, and you'll see the same difficulties. Long waiting times, shortages of medical professionals and oppressive financial challenges are common threads.

One example worth mentioning comes from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in Australia where waiting times are 10 years for non-urgent surgery and the facility has "waiting lists for waiting lists." In another example, Canada Care provides computer-generated death condolences at the same time that patients are informed of their waiting times for procedures or appointments, just in case they died while waiting.