It would appear that some American politicians understand how good we have it in Canada when it comes to Health Care. We need to remember this as Harper starts to take steps to move us toward an American System of private health care.
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER, Posted Aug 19, 2011 @ 06:02 PM
Montana Gov. BRIAN SCHWEITZER, a down-home speaker who clearly likes to entertain audiences, talked glowingly to fellow Democrats in Springfield last week about Canada’s universal health-care system.
That was music to the ears of a Bloomington doctor, DAVID GILL, who is running for the U.S. House in the new 13th Congressional District, which includes much of Springfield.
Schweitzer, who delivered keynote addresses at Governor’s Day rallies last week, told a crowd at the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association about TOMMY DOUGLAS, the late leader of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, who became “the most respected man in the history of Canada.”
The reason, Schweitzer said, is that Douglas, who nearly lost a leg to cancer as a boy, considered health care “a God-given right” and brought universal health care to his province in the 1940s.
“The doctors and nurses and hospitals and clinics said the world was going to end,” Schweitzer said. But the move led to all of Canada getting universal health care by the 1960s.
Schweitzer said Montana and Saskatchewan, just north of the border, have similar populations and demographics, but health-care costs are roughly half in the Canadian state, which also has lower infant mortality and an average life span three years longer.
“In Canada, they treat the patient to get them better,” Schweitzer said. “In the United States, we treat the patient to bill more procedures.”
Schweitzer cited Douglas, who died in 1986 at age 81, to call for the re-election of President BARACK OBAMA, who also passed legislation reflecting the view that “every man, woman and child” has a right to health care.
Obama’s detractors now, Schweitzer said, “are the same SOBs who said 50 years ago that Tommy Douglas didn’t know what he was doing.”
“In 2012, you’d better put your boxing gloves on, because we’re going to have a fight on our hands,” Schweitzer said. But he said Obama is needed to “win the future.”
Unlike most Americans, Gill said he had heard of Douglas before.
“I work in the emergency room on a full-time basis,” Gill said, “and our health-care system is so foul and wrong. … We can be so much healthier, and we can be so much richer, if we did health care right in this country.”
He thinks his view can sell in a central Illinois congressional district — despite all the negative talk about “Obamacare.”
“When they hear somebody talking truth about how vile the health-care system is, and how much better it could be if we did it properly, then they’re open to that argument,” said Gill after the morning speech.
Gill has run three times against U.S. Rep. TIM JOHNSON, R-Urbana, who also now lives in the new 13th and is campaigning for the seat. But Gill said the new map gives him a chance next year.
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER, Posted Aug 19, 2011 @ 06:02 PM
Montana Gov. BRIAN SCHWEITZER, a down-home speaker who clearly likes to entertain audiences, talked glowingly to fellow Democrats in Springfield last week about Canada’s universal health-care system.
That was music to the ears of a Bloomington doctor, DAVID GILL, who is running for the U.S. House in the new 13th Congressional District, which includes much of Springfield.
Schweitzer, who delivered keynote addresses at Governor’s Day rallies last week, told a crowd at the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association about TOMMY DOUGLAS, the late leader of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, who became “the most respected man in the history of Canada.”
The reason, Schweitzer said, is that Douglas, who nearly lost a leg to cancer as a boy, considered health care “a God-given right” and brought universal health care to his province in the 1940s.
“The doctors and nurses and hospitals and clinics said the world was going to end,” Schweitzer said. But the move led to all of Canada getting universal health care by the 1960s.
Schweitzer said Montana and Saskatchewan, just north of the border, have similar populations and demographics, but health-care costs are roughly half in the Canadian state, which also has lower infant mortality and an average life span three years longer.
“In Canada, they treat the patient to get them better,” Schweitzer said. “In the United States, we treat the patient to bill more procedures.”
Schweitzer cited Douglas, who died in 1986 at age 81, to call for the re-election of President BARACK OBAMA, who also passed legislation reflecting the view that “every man, woman and child” has a right to health care.
Obama’s detractors now, Schweitzer said, “are the same SOBs who said 50 years ago that Tommy Douglas didn’t know what he was doing.”
“In 2012, you’d better put your boxing gloves on, because we’re going to have a fight on our hands,” Schweitzer said. But he said Obama is needed to “win the future.”
Unlike most Americans, Gill said he had heard of Douglas before.
“I work in the emergency room on a full-time basis,” Gill said, “and our health-care system is so foul and wrong. … We can be so much healthier, and we can be so much richer, if we did health care right in this country.”
He thinks his view can sell in a central Illinois congressional district — despite all the negative talk about “Obamacare.”
“When they hear somebody talking truth about how vile the health-care system is, and how much better it could be if we did it properly, then they’re open to that argument,” said Gill after the morning speech.
Gill has run three times against U.S. Rep. TIM JOHNSON, R-Urbana, who also now lives in the new 13th and is campaigning for the seat. But Gill said the new map gives him a chance next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment