Loved to Death; M. Hurd

Yet Congress and the president continue to push the American system in the same direc tion. As Canada's national government slashes spending on medical care in order to reduce the deficit, local provinces are reducing med ical staff. In Ontario, pregnant women are being sent to Detroit because no obstetricians are available. Specialists of all kinds are in short supply. Patients have to wait eight weeks for an MRI, ten weeks for referral to a specialist, and four months for heart bypass surgery. Does this sound like the utopian care Canadian politicians promised their constit uents? The hard truth is that socialized med icine is destroying health care in Canada. Most Americans do not understand that we are headed down a similar path in this coun try. The same mistaken economic and philo sophical ideas that created socialized medi cine in Canada are leading to semi-socialized medicine in the United States. The increase in managed care, bureaucracy, waiting lists, and expense is largely the fault of the government.