Jun 02, 2005
Originally posted on Half an Hour, June 2, 2005.
The Wall Street Journal:
What the WSJ neglects to mention is that the government of New Brunswick is a conservative government with a policy of shutting down health services with the intent of forcing a privatization of the health care system in this province, that it has the *money* to provide the sort of care the man needed but has *refused* to do so, presumably at the behest of the U.S. health interests that fund its election campaigns.
What it also fails to point out is that, if you're poor and need of the operation in the United States, there is *no* recourse, and that *many* more people die per capita from such aiments in the U.S. than in Canada. To say that the U.S. health care system doesn't sentence people to death is laughable. That people believe this when they read it in the WSJ is tragically sad.
One thing about conservatives - they lie. A lot.
The Wall Street Journal:
Great Moments in Socialized Medicine
"A New Brunswick man who told police that a friendly dog scuttled his plan for a bloody shooting rampage was sentenced Wednesday to a three-year prison term after admitting it was all a ploy to get life-saving surgery while in jail," the
Canadian Press reports from Toronto:
Ontario Court Justice Brent Knazan described James Stanson as a "manipulative, duplicitous, entitled con-man" who headed to east Toronto last June "to hatch a plan that would lead to his detention (and) the medical treatment he needed."
"It is important that I give a sentence that denounces (Stanson's) conduct and deters anyone else from doing the same," Knazan said, rejecting the defence's request for a
sentence of one year, less a day, to be served in the community.
But Stanson's plan worked; he did indeed get the heart operation he needed while he was in custody. Self-righteous Europeans and Canadians love to call America "barbaric" for our private medical system and our refusal to abolish capital
punishment--but at least we don't sentence innocent people to death, as Canada's medical system effectively does.
What the WSJ neglects to mention is that the government of New Brunswick is a conservative government with a policy of shutting down health services with the intent of forcing a privatization of the health care system in this province, that it has the *money* to provide the sort of care the man needed but has *refused* to do so, presumably at the behest of the U.S. health interests that fund its election campaigns.
What it also fails to point out is that, if you're poor and need of the operation in the United States, there is *no* recourse, and that *many* more people die per capita from such aiments in the U.S. than in Canada. To say that the U.S. health care system doesn't sentence people to death is laughable. That people believe this when they read it in the WSJ is tragically sad.
One thing about conservatives - they lie. A lot.
