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Obama:
 
Canada’s
 
healthcare
 
system
 
is
 
“too
 
radical”
 
 By
 
 Arthur Weinreb
 
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
When President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last week in a desperate attempt to push his healthcareagenda through, he described Canada’s single payer healthcareas too much of a radical shift from the current
American medicalsystem
.Gee Barry, do you think that when the
government of Canada
 first became involved in the medical care of its citizens it wasby way of a single payer system? Okay you probably do but the reality is that Canada’s
present
 single payer healthcare was not designed or created – it evolved over time into what it is today.Tommy Douglas, known as the father of Canadian medicare, was elected premier of the provinceof Saskatchewan in 1944. With his election he became the first socialist to be elected to lead agovernment in North America. Saskatchewan at that time was largely rural; populated by farmerswho worked from sunup to sundown, seven days a week. They had valuable farmland but littlecash and a devastating medical condition or a lengthy hospital stay could completely wipe themout. So in 1947, Saskatchewan introduced a government-run insurance scheme that coveredcatastrophic medical events that most people could not be expected to easily pay for. Theinsurance plan worked much the same way as
automobile insurance
functions. Although the poorwere given complete medical coverage, everyone else paid their own medical bills for everythingother than for hospitalization. It was a true insurance scheme, not an entitlement, albeit insurancethat was run by the government.In 1957, the federal government passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act. Thislegislation provided all Canadians with free hospitalization and diagnostic tests. All other
medical services
had to be purchased on the open market and doctors working outside of ahospital setting were free to set their own fees for their services.Although private
insurance companies
and the medical establishment were opposed to thelegislation, it was generally supported by Canadians who understood that it would be paid forthrough their taxes. Taxes in those days were a lot lower than they are now; revenues fromtaxation paid for core government services such as building roads and defense. Tax money wasnot used to fund every special interest group that the government of the day favored. And wewere years away from spending hardworking peoples’ money to “save the planet”. Canadiansgenerally accepted higher taxes to fund expensive hospitalization in the same way they agreedwith spending money on public
education
.In 1966, the Medical Care Act became law which finally provided for universal health coverage.A funding formula between the federal government and the provinces was put into place thatpenalized provinces if they imposed user fees or allowed doctors to extra bill their patients. Butthis formula was changed in 1977 that effectively removed these penalties. With inflation thatwas rampant during the late 1970s, doctors routinely extra billed their patients and this practice
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