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"Each individual should allow reason to guide his conduct, or like an animal, he will need to be led by a leash."
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Thursday, July 02, 2009

The costly truth about Canada's health care system

John Stossel takes a look at Canada's health care system at Reason Magazine in this article: There's no such thing as free health care. An excerpt:
It's true that America's partly profit-driven, partly bureaucratic system is expensive, and sometimes wasteful, but the pursuit of profit reduces waste and costs and gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and save lives.

"[America] is the country of medical innovation. This is where people come when they need treatment," Dr. Gratzer says.

"Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for that type of advancement."

Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care—forever. Government monopolies don't innovate. Profit seekers do.

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