But once again the star of the show was Holmes, who related in detail her experience and gave some insight into what government-run health care looks like. She was forced to leave Canada for a “timely diagnosis,” along with 24 other people during that same month who crossed the border to access the U.S. health care system for brain tumors. Canadian health care, it seems, is not the nirvana it is made out to be by U.S. liberals. As Holmes explained, one in six Canadians do not have a primary care doctor. She could not obtain a simple blood test because the government mandates lab hours and her schedule could not be accommodated.
She continued with a litany of facts. Two premature babies born in her town could not have received adequate care; one was taken to Buffalo and the other seven hours away to Ottawa. The government tries to adhere to “targeted wait times” to access doctors but “they are never near the targets.” Prescription drugs, eye exams, and casts and crutches, to name a few items, must be paid for out-of-pocket in the supposedly “free” health care system. And if you want to see an ophthalmologist the wait is a year.
Of course there’s this pro Canadian health care aritcle in the Denver Post that I would have expected to find in the Boulder Daily Camera. The main issue I have with the Post article is they so often do a Point and CounterPoint. Obviously socialized medicine is such an important issue that the Sunday Perspective section should only present one side.
