Unbelievable. Palin says her family used to "hustle over the border" (to Canada) for health care

[jefferson_dem]

I got mine. The rest of you can drop the f*@# dead!
by David Waldman

I got mine. The rest of you can drop the f*@# dead! Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 08:30:03 AM PST

Wow.

She touched on climate change, saying that her skepticism has been proven by several recent controversies and that money shouldn't be spent on "pie-in-the-sky, snake-oil ideas."

The vocal opponent of health care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," she said. "And I think now, isn't that ironic."

Who is "she?"

She is Sarah Palin.

Sarah "Death Panels" Palin. Sarah "Socialism" Palin.

Sarah Palin's freeloading family used to border-hop for Canadian socialist, single payer, death panel health care for themselves, only to return to the U.S., where she grew up to dedicate herself to denying affordable care to you, largely by hoping you'll believe that the Canadian health care she crossed the border to get sucks so badly, it'll kill you.

Oh, not to mention the favorite Republican claim that passing health care reform in this country will supposedly rip off taxpayers by making health care available to border-hoppers!

Who here lives up near the border? How does this work? Was Palin's family sticking Canadian taxpayers for the bill, or do Americans pay up front for treatment in Canada?

Palin thinks the word for this is "ironic." I think of it more in terms of "going to Hell." But that's just me. Religious freedom and all that.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/8/844045/-I-got-mine.-The-rest-of-you-can-drop-the-f*@?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29#-dead!

[jefferson_dem]

1. Palin says her family went to Canada for health care when she was young (WaPo)

Palin says her family went to Canada for health care when she was young

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a fierce opponent of Democratic health-care reform efforts who has said America under President Obama is headed toward socialism, told a Canadian audience in her family used to go to Canada to get medical care when she was growing up.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said a speech Saturday night, according to a report in Medicine Hat News of Medicine Hat, Alberta. "And I think now, isn't that ironic."

Palin spoke before a paying audience of 1,200 in Calgary, with tickets costing between $150 and $200, the paper reported.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/palin-says-she-used-canadian-h.html

[progressoid]

8. More "gotcha" journalism.

:eyes:

[NJmaverick]

2. She is the poster child for Republican hypocrisy

[progressoid]

3. As usual, sarah needs a dictionary. She's confusing irony with hypocrisy.

[KingFlorez]

4. So she mooched off another country's system, but thinks the system here is fine?

I really wish some nasty scandal would come out and she'd be politically ruined forever. I cannot stand this freak.

[harun]

5. Republicans are the very definition of hypocrisy.

[vaberella]

6. You're kidding?! She did not publicly say this?! Send this to RM & KO--Tweety would love this. n/t

[bullwinkle428]

7. If this isn't the torpedo that sinks any future political ambitions of hers,

then I truly weep for America.

[Jennicut]

9. Palin was born in 1964. In 1966, the Medical Care Act passed in Canada.

1966: Canada Passes Universal Health Coverage Law


The Medical Care Act comes into law in Canada. The legislation provides for universal public coverage of hospital and doctors’ services to all Canadians. This follows the first public health insurance plan enacted in 1947 by the province of Saskatchewan, and the passage in 1957 of the federal Hospital Insurance and Diagnostics Services Act, which ensured universal coverage for in-hospital services in provinces that met certain criteria. By 1961, all Canada’s 10 provinces had signed on. In 1962, the government of Saskatchewan passed an act requiring doctors to collect fees solely through the government-run plan. In 1964, the Royal Commission on Health Services led by former Saskatchewan chief justice Emmett Hall recommended that a national plan covering all medical costs for all Canadians be established. http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=medical_care_act__canada__1966__1

So she partook in some socialized medicine. I have no idea what she finds ironic about it other then her parents had some brains.

[flpoljunkie]

10. Ironic? No. Hypocritical? Yes!

[Brother Buzz]

11. It's going to be entertaining listening to her spokespeople walk this one back

[AzDar]

12. "Hustle" is the operative word when dealing with the Palins.

:puke:

[dancingme]

13. Was she wearing the stuff she mooched from Hollywood

when she made this statement?

[Phx_Dem]

14. Freeloading hypocrit hillbillies from Wassila strike again. Anyone surprised?!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. This is the ultimate in "fuck you, got mine".

[polly7]

16. Really ironic when the event was co-sponsored by the Fraser

Institute - well-known for spreading progaganda to privatize health-care and its denial of global warming (partially funded of course by Exxon). I wonder if they clapped, or ran to hide somewhere.

[LiberalFighter]

17. Most likely the family committed fraud using Candadian services

[Blue_Tires]

18. lol...this should be broadcast from everywhere

FFS palin is the gift that keeps on giving...she's like a bottomless jellybean bag

[notadmblnd]

19. I live 30 miles from Windsor Ontario

I've never see one of their DRs. I have bought their Tylenol with Codine (it's sold over the counter there) for pain. 200 tablets for 15 dollars. How much does Tylenol 3 cost here with a scrip?

[Igel]

20. Don't know how it works for foreigners in Canada.

Most countries with government-sponsored health care require that foreigners have insurance that covers their care or pay, unless it's an emergency. Costs may be cheaper if costs are kept down. Some countries do it a bit differently. How Canada did it 40 years ago I can't imagine.

As for how hypocritical it is even if they paid, that rather depends on how far she lived from Canada. I can't find out where she was as a kid. Some sources say Wasilla, others hedge. If she was closer to Canadian health care than to Anchorage, no problem. I can't say much about what Ak was like 40 years ago given what I can find out about Ak now. Things change over time.

Moreover it wasn't her decision. It was her parents'. I'd like to think that I'm not going to be held morally or politically culpable for decisions that my parents made for me when I was a kid. ("Gee, Igil used to eat at a whites-only restaurant," it turns out, is a true statement. On the other hand I was 7 at the time, had no idea what 'whites-only' could mean, would have had trouble reading the sign at the mall, and my mother was both paying, telling me that it would be hours before dinner so it was that or starve, and had a rule that I had to stay near her if we were out alone in public. Context matters.)

[skygazer]

21. One would hope though, that it would make her think about the reasons

In looking back on your eating at a whites-only restaurant, I would assume you would ponder the existence of such things and your parents' tacit acceptance of it. For Palin, I would hope that she would look back on her family's use of Canadian health care and ponder why they would feel the need to use it. Any honest contemplation of that would include the realization that they felt it was more affordable, comparable in quality and a viable alternative. Which would lead a truly thoughtful person to compare it to what was available to them here in the states.

I don't hold anyone accountable for their parents' decisions on their behalf but I would hope they would use those experiences to form their own moral compass once they were adults.

[krispos42]

22. Well, maybe she has a point

I mean, look at what Canadian health care did to her... made her an empty-headed narcassistic egomaniacal close-minded self-rightous quitter with a voice that can crack Kevlar.