Reply #97: Palin born 1964, Saskatchewan socialized med 1946, rest of Canada 1966

[TrollBuster9090]

1. Canada has had socialized medicine since the Medical Care Act of 1966. (And Saskatchewan has had socialized medicine since 1946.) You might be thinking of the 1984 Act that prohibited user fees. Prior to that, medical care was still universal and single-payer, but user fees could be charged for certain services in certain provinces. Trudeau abolished that.

2. Contrary to GOP talking points, THOUSANDS of Americans used to flood across the border to filch off of Canada's 'free' healthcare system, until they started tightening up on ID cards, and making sure that only Canadian citizens and landed immigrants could get access to it:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/20/world/americans-filching-free-health-care-in-canada.html?pagewanted=1


3. Again, contrary to GOP talking points, the number of Canadians that go to the U.S. for healthcare is VERY SMALL. The only actual STUDY to try and find out how many do that concluded that the number is miniscule.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/short/21/3/19

Please feel free to cite the above study next time some blowhard cites one or two cases of isolated Canadian millionaires coming to the U.S. for treatment. When STATISTICS are not on your side, you cite individual examples, and pretend they're typical when they're not. And that's exactly what the GOP and their corporate masters have been doing for 30 years when it comes to the healthcare debate. Citing one or two examples of Canadains coming to the U.S. for treatment, while ignoring the fact that very few actually do that on average.

Meanwhile, there is about a one billion dollar a year traffic of senior citizens who can't afford their meds in the USA traveling to Canada to get them, and landing the Canadian pharmacies in trouble with their suppliers. If anybody is wondering why the argument about re-importation of drugs from Canada is nonsense, it's because CANADA IS NOT ALLOWED TO SHIP THEM to the U.S.. They negotiated price controls with the pharmaceutical industry on the specific condition that they would only sell to Canadians, and not allow re-importtion of cheaper drugs back to the USA. :)