Limbaugh, 6/15/09- Health Care

You got to hand it to Rush Limbaugh. He challenges liberals- and makes rebuttal easy. Rush played a clip from President Obama's speech today to the American Medical Association:

Let me also address a illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single payer system. Now, I'll be honest. There are countries where a single payer system works pretty well.

Limbaugh's response:

Name one.

O.K., this didn't take much research- and we don't have to go far. Take Canada.

This article by clinical psychologist Rhonda Hackett describing herself "as a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years" debunks most, maybe all, of the charges voiced against the Canadian health care system. You've heard them all: the system drives taxes up, it's overly bureaucratic, it's much more expensive than what we have in the U.S.A., the government decides who gets serviced when, there are very long waits, Canadians run to the the states for operations, the government runs the hospitals and employs the doctors, there are too few doctors in Canada.

The GOP routinely warns ominously of the "government coming between the patient and their doctor," warning "We cannot allow politicians and special interests to stand between patients and the care they need." Shilling for the insurance industry, Repubs (and a few of their Democratic allies) claim they support a health care system which "protects the important doctor-patient relationship." But Hackett notes

While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be.

There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.

Rush Limbaugh wants a health care system of, by, and for the insurance carriers. But then, at least he can afford it.