Monday, July 27, 2009

Where Did This Particular Myth Come From?

With all of the Health Care Reform activity in the U.S. heating up, one of the sound bites that I keep hearing is that "in Canada, old people are denied access to medical care." Just where did this come from? Who exactly are these senior Canadians who are supposedly being denied access to doctors, drugs or surgery because they're too old? I've got an 83 year old aunt who doesn't go to the doctor nearly enough (because she's afraid of doctors, and has been her whole life) but who gets great care on those rare occasions when a relative can drag her to see one.

Is this just typical conservative bullshit that they throw out when they want to scare people ("Ooh, watch out! Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction!!!!") or is there some validity to this tactic? If it's something along the lines of a 80 year old not getting a liver transplant because he's already drank his way through a couple other ones, then I'd have to say that this fear mongering is pretty disingenuous.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've heard a few sound bites ... that make the speaker sound like either a 50's senator still afraid of the Red's subverting their system through Medicine....OR just making them sound like a complete ignoramus.

Did you catch the quote on the daily show about 1 out of every 5 people die in our health system. (the daily show was mocking said sound bite.)