Canada scandal shows how Obamacare would work

July 5, 2012

By John Seiler

Even before last week’s Supreme Court ruling mostly green-lighting Obamacare, California was in the forefront of implementing the centralized medicine scheme. In particular, it has been advancing the California Health Benefits Exchange, which would run health insurance on the model of the DMV.

So how is government-run medical care working in the Great White North, which has had socialized medicine for 40 years?

A friend of mine, Mark Huber, just wrote an article for Aviation International News Online on how government monopolization of air-ambulances has led to much worse service, even to deaths:

“Ontario’s Legislative Assembly will continue its hearings over the summer into alleged performance failings and mismanagement at the Canadian province’s government-funded air-ambulance service known as “Ornge.” The hearings started on March 28 and, as of press time, it was unclear when Members of the Provincial Parliament (MPPs) would issue their final report into what appears to have gone badly wrong after Ontario’s Liberal Party-led government gave overall control of the service to privately owned Ornge. Instead, the opposition politicians who instigated the hearings called last month for a full select committee investigation with full judicial powers, to get to the bottom of allegations and testimony aired in the parliamentary sessions….

“A special report by Ontario’s auditor general found that in fiscal year 2009-2010, Ornge turned down 7,700 requests for assistance; some 4,700 of those were on-scene requests, while another 3,000 involved the transfer of patients between medical facilities. Of the latter, 1,900 were classified “urgent.” Since 2007, according to National Healthwatch (which describes itself as “Canada’s nerve center for the health-related industry”), 145 Ornge patient incidents have been investigated by the Ministry of Health, 26 of which involve the death of patients.”

Imagine you’re in a car accident, bleeding out on the side of the road because your socialized medical system is so incompetent.

“Ornge’s transaction on the AW139s has drawn scrutiny on a number of fronts, with MPP Klees (in a May 3 session of the Ontario Provincial Parliament) publicly accusing AgustaWestland of providing what he characterized as a multimillion-dollar “kickback” to Ornge’s charity, in the form of the $2.9 million donation, as well as two marketing services and endorsement contracts worth $6.7 million to for-profit companies Ornge Peel and Ornge Global.”

Read the whole thing. It’s a cautionary tale.

And if you travel to Canada, take your own Band-Aids.