They have nothing left in their bag of tricks so they switch gears and go into HealthSCARE lies overdrive. Listen to Liz Cheney continue promoting the same republican scare talking point lies about the Canadian health care system. Canadian friends I know continue to laugh at such ridiculous claims being made daily by these industry SCARE mongers and keep asking me WHY hasn't the Democratic party called them out on their lies? Why aren't health care proponents dispelling such lies using testimonials of REAL Canadians & health care providers who use the health care system everyday?
Excerpt from Larry King transcript:
<
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0907/21/lkl.01.html>
KING: Would you say the thought, Liz, of -- of reform is unanimous -- everyone wants some reform?
CHENEY: Yes. I think it's clear that...
KING: OK.
CHENEY: ...that, you know, there are some things that need to be done to fix the system. However, I think that there's absolutely no justification -- and you see the American people now growing increasingly concerned about the president's plans, the Democrats on the Hill, the plans that would really turn our system into a Canadian...
KING: OK...
CHENEY: ...or a British system...
KING: Let me...
CHENEY: ...where you don't get to decide who your doctor is and where the government is deciding who gets what treatments. That's simply...KING: Let me get a break...
CHENEY: ...a dangerous path to go down.-----------
KING: One other thing.
CHENEY: But let's go back...
KING: One other thing.
CHENEY: ...to the fact that Britain...
KING: The issue...
CHENEY: ...and in Canada...KING: What -- Liz.
CHENEY: ...people don't get to choose their medicine.KING: All right. We're...
CHENEY: They don't get to choose their doctors.KING: We're getting repetitive, guys.
----------------------------
video:
<
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907220007>
---------------------------------------------
10 MYTHS ABOUT CANADIAN HEALTH CARE BUSTED!!Physicians for a National Health Program:
<
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/february/10_myths_about_canad.php>
4. You have to wait forever to get a family doctor.False for the vast majority of Canadians, but True for a few. Again, it all depends on where you live. I live in suburban Vancouver, and there are any number of first-rate GPs in my neighborhood who are taking new patients. If you don’t have a working relationship with one, but need to see a doctor now, there are 24-hour urgent care clinics in most neighborhoods that will usually get you in and out on the minor stuff in under an hour.
It is, absolutely, harder to get to a doctor if you live out in a small town, or up in the territories. But that’s just as true in the U.S. — and in America, the government won’t cover the airfare for rural folk to come down to the city for needed treatment, which all the provincial plans do.
5. You don’t get to choose your own doctor.Scurrilously False. Somebody, somewhere, is getting paid a lot of money to make this kind of stuff up. The cons love to scare the kids with stories about the government picking your doctor for you, and you don’t get a choice. Be afraid! Be very afraid!
For the record: Canadians pick their own doctors, just like Americans do. And not only that: since it all pays the same, poor Canadians have exactly the same access to the country’s top specialists that rich ones do.
----------------------
Debunking Canadian Health Care MythsA must read!
As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.
Often I'll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner's nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one's merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.
Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.
Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America's health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.
As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system.
Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians.
In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be.
There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427]
.