Some are more equal than others

Belinda Stronach is a Canadian who has unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer. After reviewing her options, she has elected to come to the U.S. to undergo treatment.

I support Ms. Stronach's decision to spend her own money on her health care, and to decide for herself where and how her disease will be treated. There's one small issue, however: Ms. Stronach is a liberal member of the Canadian Parliament, and her and her party helped come up with the nationalized health care "scheme" that is causing people up there to wait years for treatment, even for serious diseases such as cancer. You see, there is no such animal as private insurance or fee-for-service in Canada, because liberal politicians like Stronach railed against having a "two-tier" health system. Except when they get sick themselves, apparently.

It's no bother to me what Stronach does, but the peasants up there are not happy about her decision, judging from the comments that have been posted at the article's website. There are plenty of horror stories about how regular citizens up there are being forced to wait and wait and wait, which is the natural result of the rationing that inevitably occurs when a service is given away for "free" by the government.

Here's Richard on his experiences:

"I had to take my father to Cleveland for a hip replacement because he couldn't get it done here after 14 months of waiting. I had to go to the States to get a bone rebroken and reset after our system screwed it up and told me it'd be months to get it fixed. I have paid into the system for years, and it's never there when I need it."

And one from Brian:

"I more than likely have skin cancer, but my appointment with a specialist is 6 months from now."

And so on.

Ms. Stronach seems to have decided to forgo the excellent health care that she helped set up in her country in order to come to our unfair, broken mess of a jumbled system for care. Hypocrisy? You bet.

One person named Jim summed it up nicely:

"The story here isn't about those who get treatment in the states. It's about a liberal politician that is part of a political party that espoused the Canadian public system and vowed to ensure that no private health care was ever going to uspurp the current system. She is an MP for the party that relentlessly attacked the conservatives for their "hidden agenda" to privatize health care."

It's easy to dictate what the masses will get or not get, when one gets special privileges and doesn't have to go through the same process as everyone else. You wanted this system, Ms. Stronach, so you should now live with the results, lest someone label you a hypocrite.

Actually, I guess I already did.