Re: “UCP leader wants to explore private health care options,” Feb. 21.
No, Jason Kenney, Albertans should not support any political party that suggests funding private health care, nor should they vote for any party that supports funding private schools with taxpayers’ money.
If private health care is so great, why is the private health-care system so expensive?
Based on studies provided by the Commonwealth Fund, the New England Journal of Medicine, and U.S. News & World Report, America’s system is costlier and less efficient than those associated with universal care systems in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, U.K., France, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.
Based on their studies, the U.S. system of private health care is far more costly than Canada’s health care system.
Moreover, Americans don’t live as long as Canadians and most western Europeans, and the mortality rates for women and children are higher in the U.S.
So, why does Kenney and the Fraser Institute support private health care? The bottom line, in my opinion, is money (greed).
In America, private health care is a $3-trillion industry that benefits doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and the lawyers who defend them. Those vested interests do not want to change the system that benefits them, not the consumers/patients.
Yes, our system of health care is not perfect, but it certainly beats the alternatives hands down. In the United States, 60 per cent of all bankruptcies are attributed to health care costs. Is that what we want for Canadians?
George Thatcher, Trochu