Ontario's rotten Liberal health care monopoly

Further to yesterday's post, Canada does not have the best health care system in the world, (about those status-quo health-care reactionaries who, as Keith Martin put it, have their heads in the sand) is this typical obstructionist-mindset letter, by Richard Murri, “Compare health-care apples to apples”, (Niagara This Week, Apr.1, 2009):

“In various opinion columns, Dr. R. Ouelett, president of the Canadian Medical Association and a self-avowed supporter of having a greater role for the private delivery of heath-care services in our public system, continually distorts facts by comparing our health system to those in Europe in order to advance his agenda.
We should, in fact be comparing our system to that of the Americans, not Europe.
According to the World Health Organization, all of the European countries, like Canada, spend public money on health care. Among industrialized nations, only the U.S. spends more private money than public (55 per cent).
In fact, almost all European countries are less privatized than Canadian health care. (Canada 30 per cent private, U.K. 14 per cent, France 22 per cent, Germany 23 per cent and Sweden 15 per cent).
If in fact our system is falling short, the above information shows it is because of greater privatization here, not less.
In every analysis and impartial study, the Canadian single-provider system is demonstrably more cost effective and efficient than its American counterpart. It costs 48 per cent less and provides 100 per cent coverage while 47 million Americans have no health care coverage at all.
The mostly right leaning press has constantly trumpeted the evils of public health funding compared to private while "business friendly" federal governments cut transfers for Health and Education to the Provinces in order to make their own budgets look better. The deception must stop before we lose a valuable part of what makes Canada a great country in which to live."
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This is exactly the kind of left-wing populist reactionary mindset Keith Martin mentioned. The usual American-system bashing is trotted out; the obligatory nationalist flag-waving takes place, linking our oppressive (and hopefully soon to be found unconstitutional) statist health monopoly to some mythical grand Canadian national identity; distorted claims are made (Canadians are "100% covered"...what an exaggeration! No mention made of cuts in the government-run monopoly!); and a (apples to oranges!!) comparison of systems is made, completely disregarding the fact that Canada's is a state-run health-care monopoly, along the lines of Cuba's and North Korea's!
It used to be 25 million, then 30 million, then 45 million, now supposedly "47 million Americans have no health coverage at all"! Murri doesn't define 'American' in his scenario, is he including those residing in the States who are illegal aliens? Are they under 24 years of age? Have they failed to enroll in available, existing medicaid programs? Are they residing in covered households earning over 75K? Is the 47-million "not covered at all" number being bandied about by fearmongering lefties not only inaccurate, but an overblown, anecdotal myth? What of Canada's waiting lists and doctor shortages? Why should a state's ideologically-based single-payer monopoly override a patient's right to source and pay for their own health coverage? A state-run health-monopoly is not synonymous to universal health care!
(By the way, the name of the doctor Murri writes of is properly spelled Dr. Robert Ouellet; he is the current head of the Canadian Medical Association; see also: Will Ontario Liberals support European-style hybrid health-care?; see also: More Liberal deception from MPP health-care monopolist Jim Bradley)

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I wrote in “Canadian health care system a monopoly”, (Niagara This Week, Apr.8, 2009):

"RE: "Compare health-care apples to apples", Letters, April 1.

In his letter comparing privatization rates of health-care systems in Europe and the States, writer Richard Murri neglects to compare apples to apples, conveniently ignoring the fact that we have a state-run single-payer health monopoly.

Murri neglects to mention that the 'business friendly federal government which cut transfers to the provinces on order to make their books look better', was for over a decade the standard deceptive operating procedure of the Chretien/ Martin Liberal government.

Murri perhaps is unaware that U.S. President Obama has wisely dismissed the Canadian single-payer health-care model as a template for U.S. reforms.

Murri doesn't mention Liberal Premier McGuinty has said that Ontario already spends half of its budget on health care, and doesn't mention McGuinty incongruously raised a new multi-billion dollar health tax while also reducing coverage.

It's long past due for Ontarians to advance beyond left-wing obstructionist agendas, and move towards reforming our sicko state-run health-care monopoly model."
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Ontario's Liberal-run health care monopoly is rotten to the core, while status-quo-defending leftist reactionaries kill off any seeds of hope for reform.