Canadians are no different than anyone else when it comes to their infatuation with charismatic politicians. Bill Clinton has raked in millions giving speeches to packed rooms across Canada for years now. Barack Obama will forever be a rock star in the eyes of most Canadians. And only a fool would think the federal Liberals' back-from-the-brink return to power happened for policy reasons, rather than the boyish charm of Justin Trudeau and nostalgia for the glory years of his father.
Still, all three of those men have (or in Clinton's case, had) an undeniable coolness and sex appeal distinct from their politics. In the case of Clinton and Obama, they're gifted public speakers as well. So I'm left scratching my head at the fawning over Bernie Sanders. Lacking any of the natural gifts possessed by Obama et al., Sanders nevertheless sees more enraptured, standing-room-only crowds than any septuagenarian Jew save Barbra Streisand.
Senator Sanders, of course, came to Canada as part of his quixotic campaign to bring single-payer health care to the U.S., something that has about as much chance of getting through Congress as a nationwide firearms ban. And Sanders has faced criticism for going down this road, rather than focusing his efforts on curtailing the Republicans' and Trump administration's collective crusade to sabotage the rickety, universal-"ish" policy sausage commonly called Obamacare.
Not that you can blame him. The American health care system is an unwieldy, expensive, legal Frankenstein's monster shaped more by industry lobbyists than experts, rife with enough bureaucracy and corruption to make an ex-Soviet blush. Almost anything would be an improvement.
So Bernie trudges onward, fighting the good fight, and he rode north to showcase Canada's single-payer system as the centerpiece of his argument. He's had help, notably from Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the most prominent single-payer cheerleaders from within the medical community. But the provincial Liberals and federal New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh (the NDP's very own Sharp Dressed Man) were more than happy to tag along, and give Bernie plenty to get excited about.
So where did Bernie get chaperoned through, to convince him of the infallibility of Canadian health care?
The shiny new building at Women's College Hospital, complete with its Crossroads clinic that serves refugees and other needy Canadians.
The Newton Glassman Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai Hospital.
And the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital, Canada's home for state-of-the-art treatment of heart disease.
It should come as no surprise that Sanders was "awed" by what he saw of Canadian healthcare. Who wouldn't be giddy at the sight of shiny, sexy facilities in the heart of Toronto, full of the latest cost-no-object technology, and paid for by the generosity of wealthy philanthropists?
There's nothing inherently wrong with showing a visiting official only what Canadian health care gets right, but it's grossly misleading. Worse still, it will almost certainly play right into the hands of the Fox News crowd as a "conspiracy to hide the truth", and help torpedo substantive efforts to improve the health of Americans.
What sorts of truths are part of Canadian health care?
A mental health care system starved for resources, with devastating and fatal but preventable consequences.
The inestimable waiting...hours to be seen in the ER, days to be seen by a primary care provider, weeks to get a diagnostic test, months to be seen by a specialist, and years to have surgery for debilitating chronic conditions.
And hospitals corridors packed with the sick and the elderly, simply because there's nowhere else for the patients to go.
We have much to be proud of in Canadian health care, but it's neither the best in the world nor even the envy of other developed countries. Even more worrisome, the smugness Canada so often feels about its health care system is now approaching the level of full-on delusion among leaders and policymakers.
All the credit in the world goes to Bernie Sanders. No Vegas odds-maker would have picked him to inspire young Americans in much the same way Barack Obama did in 2008. But nobody, least of all poor and working-class Americans, will benefit from Yet Another Politician shilling a pie-in-the-sky health care system that is much worse off than its shiny parts would have you believe. Bernie Sanders should know better, and so should the Canadian chaperones that put him up to it.
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Monday, October 30, 2017
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Canada,
Canada Health Act,
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health policy,
leadership,
politics,
privatization,
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