by Sidney Sweeting, DDS

I am reading the book "America Alone" by Mark Steyn and I feel compelled to quote him verbatim when someone suggested that America should "join the world" in their social programs. Here is what he wrote:

Well, those "40 millions Americans without health insurance" would enjoy the benefit of a new Government health care system and, like their 250 million neighbors, would discover the charms of the health care "waiting list" – the one year, two years, or more Britons and others wait in pain for even routine operations; the six, twelve, eighteen months Canadians wait for an MRI scan, there being more such scanners in the city of Philadelphia than in the entire Great White North. They’re now pioneering the ultimate expression of government health care; the ten month waiting list for the maternity ward.

In 2004, Debrah Cornthwaite gave birth to twin boys at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. That’s in Alberta. Mrs. Cornthwaite had begun the big day by going to her local maternity ward at Langley Memorial Hospital. That’s in British Columbia. They told her, yes, your contractions are coming every four minutes, but sorry, we don’t have any beds. And, after they’d checked with the bed-availability helpline "BC Bedline" they brought her the further good news that there was not a hospital anywhere in the province in which she could deliver her babies. There followed seven hours of red tape and paperwork. Then, late in the evening, she was driven to the airport and put on a chartered twin-prop to Edmonton. In the course of the flight, the contractions increased to every two and a half minutes – and most Lamaze classes don’t teach timing your breathing to turbulence over the Rockies. How many Americans would want to do that on delivery day? You pack your bag and head to your local hospital in Oakland, and they say: "Not to worry, we’ve got a bed for you in Denver."

In case Bahamians need reminding, the proposed NHI plan is very similar to the Canadian plan.