Canadian healthcare system a fine model
http://www.ruidosonews.com/ruidoso-guest_commentaries/ci_12603930
Ellen Wedum Cloudcroft
Posted: 06/16/2009 07:50:12 PM MDT
Glynis Racine takes a shotgun approach to Democrat-sponsored legislation, firing away at efforts to curb global warming and to improve health care for Americans. ("Clean Energy Act a ruse for healthcare reform," June 3.)
Here are some alternative arguments.
First, the cap-and-trade program is not a tax. "Tax" has become a word used to elicit knee-jerk reactions from Republicans. This tactic has backfired in the case of at least one rich Republican - you may have read about California millionaire Howard Ahmanson, Jr., switching his party affiliation to Democrat.
There has been a carbon tax proposal, which simply requires businesses to pay a tax for every ton of pollution they emit. A carbon tax would provide for cost certainty; the cost is fixed because of the tax. Cap and trade, on the other hand, would provide for environmental certainty.
What's fixed is the cap itself - and it is based on an assessment of the decreased level of emissions you need in order to protect the climate (1). The U.S. has already been quietly successful at controlling acid rain pollution using a cap and trade system.
Then there's the scary predictions she quotes from some Heritage Foundation study (not cited). Plain old inflation increased the cost of living by 120 percent between 1982 and 2008 (2), so an increase in gasoline prices of only 74 percent between 2009 and 2035 sounds good!
I enthusiastically agree with Racine's statement that true healthcare reform "must preserve the sacred doctor-patient relationship while reducing cost and increasing coverage."
And guess what? The Canadian national healthcare system does just that! The program is funded by taxes, but is administered by each province. It is a basic insurance plan, with just one set of rules for reimbursements, not the thousands of different sets of rules that the U.S. has.
Contrary to the lies being spread by right-wing commentators, Canadian doctors are independent contractors. Canadian citizens are free to buy additional health insurance if they choose. As a result, 100 percent of Canadian citizens have guaranteed basic health care at a cost equivalent to 10 percent of the Canadian GDP. In the United States, about 85 percent of Americans have some kind of coverage, at a cost of 17 percent of the U.S. GDP (3).
As a result, the infant death rate per thousand births in Canada is 4.6; in the U.S. it is 6.4. The average life span in Canada is 80.3 years; in the U.S. it is 78.0 years (4).
So please, do contact our congressional delegation, and let them know you want a national healthcare option similar to the Canadian system. A toll-free number for reaching the Capitol switchboard is 800-828-0498.
(1) "Handling Climate Change," by Eileen Claussen and Judith Greenwald
(2) www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
(3) "Debunking Canadian health care myths," by Rhonda Hackett; "Mythbusting Canadian Health Care," Part 1 and Part 2, by Sara Robinson
(4) www.infoplease.com/ipa/-A0004393.html