I'm going to throw myself into the fight here, and debunk another favored myth of the Right, which is that the Canadian health system is so bad, millions of Canadians come here for their health care.

[...]

According to surveys, less than 0.1% of Canadians are expressly seeking care in the U.S. 

The problem is that few on the right side of the debate are perpetuating this so-called myth. To my knowledge, those "dangerous reactionaries" at the Fraser Institute haven't made this argument. Nor have those "looney libertarians" at PRI - or those "heartless" free-marketers over at Cato.

Its not difficult to see why. Canadians have already paid taxes for national health insurance. They've also been been subjected to years of government propaganda about the superiority of their system and the absurd notion that socialized medicine is a defining feature of what it means to be 'Canadian' - even though it has only been around since 1984!

When the average Canadian becomes sick and is put on a long waiting list, they don't have the money to go to the U.S. to buy health care because they've already spent it in the form of high taxes! They don't have private health insurance because it's been outlawed. And - they don't have savings earmarked for health care expenditures since the government has assured them that they are covered.

And - they're afraid. They fear that if they rock the boat by threatening to go to the U.S., that they could lose their place in the health care queue. They fear that they would be seen as 'Un-Canadian'. So, they hope against hope that their number will come up soon before they go blind, become crippled, addicted to painkillers or die. Many of those on long wait lists are old people on fixed incomes who typically are not saavy enough to research the availability of alternate health care options in the U.S. and are the least able to travel here.

It should be noted that those Canadians who do come to the U.S. are typically quite desperate. There are even businesses like Timely Medical Alternatives in Vancouver that cater to them and help arrange for medical care in the U.S. (Perhaps Mr. Holt could point us to a comparable operation in the U.S.). These desperate Canadians are easy to find. I should know - I've travelled extensively in Canada, from Vancouver Island to New Brunswick, interviewing victims of their health care system for a short film we made named Dead Meat and for an upcoming feature length documentary on health care in the U.S. that is currently under development.

In the same piece, Ms. Steadman goes on to show why we can't listen to the "single-payer" crowd.

They lie.

The bottom line is our health care is twice as expensive, fails to cover 46 million people, has questionable quality, kills around 100,000 people a year from error, and for all this we have worse health indicators (i.e. lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, etc).  Other countries do it better, and they do it with the help of government to pay for health costs.    

What she means by "twice as expensive" is that the U.S. spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than other countries. However, she doesn't deem it relevant that Americans are free to spend more on a premium good like health care and that countries like Canada and the U.K. keep health care costs down by denying care to their citizens.

The socialized health care folks keep repeating the "46 million without health care" mantra in the hope that a lie repeated enough times becomes conventional wisdom. They've been remarkably successful in this regard. However, according to U.S Census Bureau Health Insurance Data, more than one third of all the uninsured are members of households with over $50K in annual income. Indeed, nearly one fifth hail from households pulling down more than $75K a year:

People without Health Insurance By Household Income

Its hard to see how our health care system has 'failed' more than 15 million people who can afford health insurance but choose not to buy it. Certainly these people are not deprived of health care. They have merely chosen not to insure themselves. Yes, there are millions of people who cannot afford health insurance because it is too expensive. However, the advocates of more government involvement in health care never mention the chief culprit behind escalating health care costs: government. Government intervention in the market drives up health care costs in hundreds of ways.

One way in which state politicians drive up the cost of insurance is by imposing health insurance "mandates" which require that insurance companies offer coverage for a particular health care product or service. Forty five states mandate alcohol treatment, thirty four mandate drug abuse treatment while coverage for In Vitro fertilization is mandated in fourteen states. Imagine if politicians decreed that every new home built must have at least four bedrooms, top-of-the-line kitchen appliances and a swimming pool. Millions would be unable to afford a new home. Then the calls from the left to have the government provide everyone with a free home would begin - since the free market had failed to meet society's needs.

Like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who constantly recycles the same health care op-ed column containing the same falsehoods, Ms. Steadman offers lower U.S. life expectancy averages and higher U.S. infant mortality rates as proof that we spend more and get less. However these statistics tell us nothing about our health care system. Washington D.C. has an infant mortality rate twice as high as the national average[1]. Should we conclude that the doctors and hospitals in our nation's capitol are substandard - or that there are other factors that decisively influence infant mortality rates - like culture? Gregory Datillo's and David Racer's fantastic new book Your Health Matters includes a devastating critique of the infant mortality rate argument against our health care system[2]:

The impact of families, and especially two-parent families, is stark when single-parent birth statistics are referenced. During the 1960s, about 17 percent of African-American children were born out of wedlock; today, 22 percent of white children are born out of wedlock. Out-of-wedlock births among African-American woman are, however, an astounding 69 percent.

Correlation, of course, does not prove cause - but it certainly raises concerns.

Compared to white mothers, African-American women suffer twice the rate of infant mortality, have extremely low-weight babies at a rate 15 percent greater, are twice as likely not to receive prenatal care, and more than two-thirds of their children are born out of wedlock.

What does all this say about the U.S. health care system? Nothing.

What does all this say about the U.S. welfare system that began with the Great Society programs of the 1960s at a time when only 17 percent of African-American women gave birth out of wedlock? What does this say about federal welfare programs that transferred the responsibility for fathers to care for their families to the government? Absolutely everything.

Finally, Ms. Steadman wants "the help of government to pay for health costs." American citizens already pay 100% of the cost of U.S. health care. Under socialized health care, American citizens would still pay 100% of health care costs. Ms. Steadman simply wants to inject more physical force into the system to redistribute wealth and direct health care services to her liking. She wants government bureaucrats to make life and death decisons concerning your health - and for you to have no say in the matter.

The reality of the system that she advocates is described best by philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand in her book "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal":

Now consider the alternative - the tribal society, where all men throw their efforts, values, ambitions, and goals into a tribal pool or common pot, then wait hungrily at its rim, while the leader of a clique of cooks stirs it with a bayonet in one hand and a blank check on all their lives in the other.

That's a perfect description of the Canadian health care system.

References:

[1]"Your Health Matters", Gregory Datillo & David Racer, 2006. p. 158.

[2] ibid, p. 164-165.