However, instead of expressing her gratitude, she criticized Canada's health care system, saying it should be dismantled in favor of free enterprise. I am marveling at the intellectual incompetence that would compel a person to make such an imbecilic statement. Why would anyone trade an imperfect, but working system for the "free enterprise" mess that we call health care in the U.S.? Reviewing relevant statistics shows why this would be a bad idea:
- Total health care expenditures (% GDP)
10.0 Canada - 15.6 U.S. (2006) - Public health care expenditures (% GDP)
7.0 Canada - 7.0 U.S. (2006) - Medical doctors per 1,000 population
2.1 Canada - 2.4 U.S. (2006) - Acute care beds per 1,000 population
2.8 Canada - 2.7 U.S. (2006) - Expectation of life at birth (years)
81.3 Canada - 78.2 U.S. (2010) - Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 life births)
5.0 Canada - 6.1 U.S. (2010) - Healthy life expectancy at birth (years)
75 Canada - 73 U.S. (2007)
A comparison with other countries that offer public health care options would look even worse for the U.S. The obscenely higher cost of U.S. health care despite no better or worse outcomes and despite the fact that the U.S. health insurance industry avoids covering high-risk patients is truly astounding.
When considering the billion-dollar profits that the health insurance industries have raked in, it becomes apparent where a portion of your premiums goes. What seems to have been forgotten is that "health insurance is a form of collectivism by means of which people collectively pool their risk, in this case the risk of incurring medical expenses." With the U.S. "free enterprise" approach, what was envisioned to be cooperative risk management among altruistic people has become a feeding frenzy for the greedy. This is what Sarah Palin advocates for Canada.
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