…can’t be.

A bad example in Ontario is MRI exams. Government control has caused a shortage of machinery. Appointments are provided 24hrs a day to increase access.

The government should be ashamed of this failure, but instead blames the high cost for the problem, warning that better access will cost even more. The government glosses over the fact that it’s their own failure to meet demand that has inflated costs. The government then regulates the cost of the exam; suddenly technicians are no longer available 24hrs – why should they offer 24hr service at REDUCED pay? Government solves the problem by regulating the technicians.

The result: there are fewer and fewer people who make MRI Technician their choice of career, so the government spends money on recruiting. It’s an endless cycle of cost and waste. And this is just one small example from within the behemoth framework of public health.

Supporters of a “public option” in the U.S. are naive if they think this same cycle won’t repeat itself in America. And the first nationalization is the hardest – once healthcare is nationalized, other businesses and industries will draw the ire of the government for various irrational reasons, and the second nationalization will be much easier as the government boasts about it’s “success” (which is actually gross failure) in healthcare.

I realize many supports of the public option would argue with my use of the term “nationalization” based upon the specifics of the proposed legislation. But whether the government outright steals an industry, or surriptitiously steals it by competing with the industry while cripling it with regulation, it’s still nationalization in my opinion.

Opponents of the “public option” in the United States need to go beyond pointing out the specific failures of the system in Canada to support their opposition, and speak of the entire cultural shift that took place in our country following national health: the gradual acceptance of more and more government intervention and control in a variety of industries and institutions. It became natural to rely on the government. A culture of entitlement has been created, not of earning, trade and self-sufficiency.

Thanks for your time! Michael from Toronto