The UK like canada has a socialized health system.
Proverbs 11:26 says that "People curse the man who hoards grain but
blessings crown him who is willing to sell." This passage points out that to
create an artificial shortage in the face of genuine human need is a
detestable practice. Socialism - which has historically presented itself as
the political philosophy of compassion - has always resulted in reduced and
poorer services, artificial shortages and rationing. This is true regardless
of where it has been tried or what aspect of life it has been applied to;
socialism has never raised the standard of living and level of care for the
less fortunate. Socialized medical care is no exception. Wherever it has
been introduced, including in our own country, the result has been declining
standards and the rationing of medical care.
I have listened with great concern as President Clinton has attempted to
convince the American public that the solution to the "health care crisis"
is to adopt a Canadian-style form of socialized medical coverage. My
first-hand experience with socialized medicine has convinced me that if the
Clinton plan were adopted, it would be a disaster for all American citizens
as well as thousands of Canadian citizens.
At the beginning of November 1993, my Canadian doctor diagnosed that I had a
major inguinal hernia that would require surgery. Upon his diagnosis, my
doctor put me immediately on the surgery wait list. After waiting over four
months, I had still not heard any word as to an expected surgery date.
Because I was in pain and discomfort every day and had physically
deteriorated to such an extent that some people barely recognized me, I
sought out medical care at a hospital in Seattle, Washington. When the
Seattle doctor saw my hernia he was aghast that I had waited for over four
and a half months for surgery. He then asked me what day I would like to
have my surgery!
Not only was my surgery prompt, but as a result of the advanced medical
procedures not available in Canada, my recovery time was a fraction of the
time the same procedure would require in Canada. In Canada I would have been
required to wait two weeks before I could drive a car, five weeks before
returning to work, and six weeks before lifting anything over 35 pounds.
After my surgery in Seattle, I was driving in three days, walking 2-3 miles
in four days, and back in the gym bench pressing weights in 10 days. Since I
could schedule the surgery when it was convenient for me, I did so over
Spring break (I am a school principal). As a result I only missed one day of
work. Recovery time, with the accompanying expenses of replacement labour
and unemployment insurance claims, is an important (and often forgotten)
factor in the total cost of medical care.
Not long ago, one of our staff members' husband was in an accident that
severed the ligament in his shoulder and rendered his arm almost useless.
Despite the severity of the injury and the fact that he was a self-employed
construction worker it was an entire year before he was able to receive
surgery. The delay in corrective surgery created untold financial distress
(not to mention great physical distress) for him and his family, and because
of the long delay, it was impossible to effectively correct the damage.
(American doctors had advised that "the window of opportunity" for
correcting his type of damage was only two weeks from time of injury.)
Most Canadians are proud of their country's health-care system; they believe
that they will receive good health-care, when they need it. Are my examples
exceptions to the rule? Apparently not. The Virginia Mason Hospital in
Seattle told me that the B.C. government asked three Seattle hospitals if
they would serve 100 patients who needed CAT scans and were unable to obtain
them in B.C. due to the shortage of medical equipment. Edward Annis in his
book Code Blue comments:
"The following is just a sampling of the waiting periods for Canadians who
cannot afford to leave the country: in the province of Newfoundland, the ave
rage wait for a coronary bypass is over three months; in Manitoba, the
average wait for hip surgery is ten-and-a-half months; in Nova Scotia,
patients wait an average of almost eight months just to fix a hammer toe; in
British Columbia, the wait to drain fluid from a patient's ear canal is
almost three months; and in New Brunswick, the average wait for a vaginal
repair or a hysterectomy is almost three months. Long waiting periods for
medical treatments are found in all Canadian provinces...."
Maclean's magazine reported in February, 1989 that 40 children who needed
heart surgery were turned away by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto;
six people died after waiting for six months for heart bypass surgery in a
Manitoba hospital during one year; and about 1000 people must wait up to a
year for heart bypass surgery in one of three hospitals in Toronto. The
Toronto Globe and Mail reported on July 28, 1988, that, due to a shortage of
equipment, over 700 kidney stone patients were sent annually to Buffalo and
New York for treatment, leaving 800 patients on the waiting list. Steven
Globerman, in his article, "Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists In
Canada" (published by the Fraser Institute, Vancouver, B.C.) noted that in
British Columbia the average wait for heart surgery is 5.5 months and the
average wait for hernia surgery is 5.7 months and often more than a year.
(As it turned out, my wait in B.C. would have been eight months.)
Furthermore, the Ottawa Citizen, February 4, 1989, reported that in British
Columbia alone, 24 patients died the previous year waiting for heart
surgery. Every year, thousands of Canadian Citizens flock from British
Columbia to the state of Washington to receive a variety of procedures from
heart surgery to cancer treatments, treatments which Canadians cannot
receive under their own socialized medical care plan.
Socialized medicine not only restricts availability of medical care, but it
also reduces the quality of medical care. The Globe and Mail reported, March
15, 1994:
"There are some physicians who are routinely seeing more than 100 patients
a day in their offices," said Dr. Warren Davidson, the lead researcher, who
is chief of geriatric medicine at the Moncton Hospital in New Brunswick.
When you have that kind of practice behaviour, you have to wonder about the
quality of care. Another of the researchers, Dr. William Molloy, remarked
that some doctors "churn patients through their office like so many
customers through a supermarket checkout counter."
Dr. Molloy, associate professor of medicine at McMaster University and
consulting geriatrician at the Hamilton Civic Hospital says, "It's hard to
imagine that patients would receive the correct diagnosis and proper
treatment after being seen for only a brief time by a physician."
Why do physicians cram so many patients through their offices each day?
Because the government sets the price rates of each patient's visit, and
doctors increase the number of patient visits an hour in order to increase
their pay. Under our scheme, the doctor does not have an economic incentive
to serve the patient, but rather the system, since the system and not the
patient pays the doctor.
The medical crisis in Canada will get worse. As health care costs continue
to rise, as governments continue to accumulate massive debts (per capita
government debt in Canada is twice as high as in the U.S.), and as an
already heavily-taxed population reaches its tolerance limit of tax
increases, the state of health care will continue to deteriorate. The money
is running out while at the same time an aging population requires greater
medical care. Compounding the problem is the fact that, due to continued low
birth rates, fewer people are entering the work force which supports the
welfare and medical system. Furthermore, as the full cost of the AIDS
epidemic is felt in the next decade, and as the courts continue to grant
outrageous lawsuit claims against medical establishments, Canadian
provincial governments will face a medical nemesis of catastrophic
proportions. Socialized medical care will be critically ill - possibly by
the end of the decade.
The solution to American and Canadian medical health care problems is not
more government intervention. Rather, government needs to get out of the
medical care business and allow the widest possible choices in medical care.
Variety, choice and competition are the only means to ensure practitioners
and care facilities become more efficient and more sensitive to the needs
and concerns of health care consumers. Like every other type of business,
the company that offers the best service at the best price will acquire the
customer.
Christians need to redeem the medical care field back to a Biblical order.
One hundred years ago, almost all the institutions of mercy in North America
were run by the church. Those Christian practitioners of medicine worked
sacrificially for "minister's" wages in humility and the fear of God. Their
purpose for entering the field of medicine was not for social status or to a
build a house on the hill with a swimming pool in the back yard, but rather
to help the hurting. They viewed people as beings of great value who were
created in the image of God. They did not see their patients as mere
biological organisms but recognized that people were a composite creation of
body, soul and spirit and that some of the maladies that affect the body may
have their origin in the emotional/spiritual dimension of the person.
Christians need wisdom and insight to see the long-term results of
socialized medicine. God's people must also have the conviction to
personally serve the needs of the hurting and the courage to resist statist
governments' false claims to be society's medical saviour.
