If only Canada had Cuba’s health care system huh?
Mothers in British Columbia are having a baby boom, but it’s the United States that has to deliver, and that has some proud Canadians blasting their highly touted government healthcare system.
“I’m a born-bred Canadian, as well as my daughter and son, and I’m ashamed,” Jill Irvine told FOX News. Irvine’s daughter, Carri Ash, is one of at least 40 mothers or their babies who’ve been airlifted from British Columbia to the U.S. this year because Canadian hospitals didn’t have room for the preemies in their neonatal units.
“It’s a big number and bigger than the previous capacity of the system to deal with it,” said Adrian Dix, a British Columbia legislator, told FOXNews.com. “So when that happens, you can’t have a waiting list for a mother having the baby. She just has the baby.”
The mothers have been flown to hospitals in Seattle, Everett, Wash., and Spokane, Wash., to receive treatment, as well as hospitals in the neighboring province of Alberta, Dix said. Three mothers were airlifted in the first weekend of October alone, including Carri Ash.
“I just want to go home and see my kids,” she said from her Seattle hospital bed. “I think it’s stupid I have to be here.”
Canada’s socialized health care system, hailed as a model by Michael Moore in his documentary, “Sicko,” is hurting, government officials admit, citing not enough money for more equipment and staff to handle high risk births.
Sarah Plank, a spokeswoman for the British Columbia Ministry of Health, said a spike in high risk and premature births coupled with the lack of trained nurses prompted the surge in mothers heading across the border for better care.
“The number of transfers in previous years has been quite low,” Plank told FOXNews.com. “Before this recent spike we went for more than a year with no transfers to the U.S., so this is something that is happening in other provinces as well.”
Critics say these border crossings highlight the dangers of a government-run health care system.
“The Canadian healthcare system has used the United States as a safety net for years,” said Michael Turner of the Cato Institute. “In fact, overall about one out of every seven Canadian physicians sends someone to the United States every year for treatment.”
Then maybe this couple wouldn’t of been turned away at the hospital door:
A father had to deliver his own baby after his wife was twice turned away from an NHS hospital – because it was too full
~~~The couple dashed to their local maternity hospital at 7am when Elizabeth, 24, started having strong contractions.
But they were amazed to be told: “Sorry, we are full. Come back later.” The pair went home after being reassured the baby would not arrive “for hours”.
When Elizabeth’s contractions became more frequent they returned to the maternity unit at 10am – but were sent home again from the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend, near Cardiff
~~~Paramedics arrived as the baby’s head was coming out – but [the husband] was doing such a good job they supervised him until baby Emily was born at 11am.
That happens all the time in the United States right?
Oh right, sorry….we don’t have Socialized medicine here…..yet.
Government run health care, words that should make you shudder. But the lefties salivate over those same exact words because dependency is a good word to these folks. No individuals, no competition, no capitalism. Unless the program is for the collective good, if not then they have no need for it.
We see how well that’s working out for Canada don’t we?
See author page
Great post, Curt.
You know what I rarely see addressed in the socialized medicine discussion – from either side really. Is the fact that the United States population is HUGE compared to the populations of all these other countries with failed socialized medicine.
If this is tried AT ALL, it should be tried on a state-by-state basis. Mitt Romney did it for Massachusetts, I believe, and that’s fine. If the people of Massachusetts want to vote on socialized medicine for themselves, so be it. But this should not be forced upon the entire nation, especially when there is so much evidence to show that it has been a complete failure anywhere else it has been tried in the world.
Another big issue that really doesn’t get addressed enough is the fact that the places where they spend so much on failed socialized medicine, they don’t have large militaries. Canada’s military is tiny. So the reason some of these countries could even experiment with spending HUGE amounts of taxpayer money on socialized medicine is the fact that they don’t have to worry about funding a military. We are the world’s police force and that benefits these countries in more than just security, but also allowing them to not have to spend money on their own standing military.
I find it interesting though that the Left claims to be the champions of “choice”, but when it comes down to it, the only “choice” they support is killing babies. When it comes to choosing a doctor, choosing a school for one’s kids, etc, they are adamantly against “choice”. Interesting how that works.