The “Greatest Canadian” in history, according to a recent Canadian Broadcasting Company viewer vote, was not Wayne Gretsky or Alexander Graham Bell. It was Tommy Douglas, the politician who most responsible for Canada’s current system of universal, single payer health care.

You know, the single payer, government operated health care program that Canadians supposedly hate so much because it’s so awful? Yeah, that health care system. Just one of those tidbits of information that should make you go “Hmmmm . . . ” next time you hear the current propaganda from the right about much Canadians hate their government run health care system, and how horrible it would be if the United States opted for a similar system. By the way, did you know the following facts?

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First, let’s look at per capita health care spending in [Canada, the UK and New Zealand], and in the United States:

United States: $5,274
Canada: $2,931
United Kingdom: $2,160
New Zealand: $1,857

Let’s look at the figures from a slightly different standpoint, total health care spending as a percent of GDP:

United States: 15.4%
Canada: 9.8%
New Zealand: 8.4%
United Kingdom: 8.1%

The United States also has a higher infant mortality rate than each of those three countries which have government run single payer health care systems, and total life expectancy is greater in each of those three countries when compared to the United States.

The results speak for themselves. We pay significantly more in the US of A for worse health care services than do other developed English speaking countries with government operated health care systems. If you included France or Sweden (two other socialized medicine countries) in these statistics the results would look even worse.

So, tell me again? What’s so horrible about “socialized medicine?” Why should we pay so much more for a system that benefits millions fewer people, and bankrupts millions of others even if they have health insurance, than a single payer, government operated, universal coverage for every American citizen system would?

I mean other than the fact that insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists pay big bucks for the votes of our elected officials to keep things the way they are?

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