Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Friend sent a "Oho, so Sarah Palin used Canadian single-payer health care!"

thing, so I did some checking. Not exactly:
“My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse (180km away. see map). Believe it or not – this was in the ‘60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."
and from her father,
Palin's father said his family probably boarded the train for the Whitehorse hospital only twice — once when a daughter had rheumatic fever, and once when his son, also named Chuck, severely burned his leg and an infection set in.

"We much preferred to use our facilities because my insurance didn't cover anything in Whitehorse. And even though they have socialized medicine, I still had to pay the bill, being an American citizen," Heath said.

Heath worked part-time for the White Pass & Yukon Railroad and had a pass allowing him and his family to ride for free.

The train in the 1960s often was the only option for getting to a doctor, Skagway Mayor Tom Cochran said
.
So, when she and her brother were kids, once for a bad burn and once for illness their parents took them to the closest doctor. And? This is a big deal?

Only to the squirrels trying to crap on her at every opportunity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious! All you Palin haters, and apparently the "professional journalists", have missed the fact that THERE WAS NO NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN CANADA IN THE 1960s!

These left-wing types really crack me up!!!

LMAO!

The establishment of the Medical Care Act of 1966 allowed each province to set up their own "universal health care" programs, much like the states are free in America to do whatever they want regarding this sort of thing. The key word being allowed. (not required)
It wasn’t until the 1970's that Canada had any sort of nationwide "universal care" and it only covered in-hospital care. Doctor visits and other services weren’t covered.
It wasn’t until the Health Care Act of 1984 that Canada had what has come to be known as socialized medicine.
So Sarah and her family never "benefited" from "socialized medicine." On the contrary, they received the same kind of quality care we get here in America.