Mitch Berg took some time out from his Second Amendment blogging to tackle a subject he appears to know less about: Canadian health care.
He quotes liberally from an editorial about a Task Force on the Funding of the Health System that hinges on the fact that Claude Castonguay, who was instrumental in establishing Quebec's system back in the 1960s, did his job as chair.
Mitch says, "Read the whole thing." But he doesn't mean read the report [ summary.pdf]. He means read the Investors' Business Daily piece that has been floating around the conservative blogs as some sort of proof that the Canadian health system sucks.
The editorial itself hangs a few anecdotes on a very thin thread attached to an appealing hook — that the architect of the system has
concluded that the system is in "crisis."
"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."
The quotes come from two different places in the Task Force's 314-page report. It's a stretch to say the Chairman "said" them. And while the report proposes various measures to increase freedom of choice — such as forming cooperatives and paying more to get a procedure done sooner — it's also a reach to splice the two statements together with "he prescribes a radical overhaul."
In fact, the report describes changes in the context of Quebec's current public health system:
The Task Force does not call into question any of the basic principles of the existing system. As part of the social contract it is proposing, the Task Force identifies changes that, in terms of principles, are consistent with efforts previously made and initiatives already taken.
However, these are major changes. The Task Force is showing the way for profound transformations, compared to what we currently do and the obligations of each citizen as regards the health system. They draw on best practices noted throughout the world. The Task Force recommends that they be implemented in an orderly and gradual way, over a period of five to seven years.
And it also reaffirms the principle of a public system using language that is not GOP-approved:
Of all our public programs, the health system is the most significant expression of the
solidarity that unites all citizens to respond collectively to the basic needs of every human being.
I haven't read the entire report, but I've read enough to know it hardly represents a repudiation of the fundamental public health system.
- The report covers only the Quebec system, not the entire Canadian system. Other provinces already allow some of the reforms proposed in the report.
- The primary focus of the Task Force was improving the quality of care and access while addressing unsustainable cost growth — the same issue facing all health systems globally.
- The Task Force cites the model reform efforts of other social democracies, not what's going on south of its border, and its objective was to "ensure the long-term viability of a system we are all strongly attached to, but which cannot be maintained without rigorous effort and a collective awareness of the issues at stake."
- The "crisis" is "a crisis of confidence: our system is costly compared to our collective wealth, and is not as productive as it could be."
The report poses hard questions and makes recommendations that can be lifted out of context to make them seem like more than an evolutionary response to health care realities. American reformers should certainly consider its findings. But it is also a report specific to Quebec, its history and politics, none of which the IBD piece is interested in revealing.
This is not the first time this week Mitch got caught doing a drive-by post based on a too-quick read. Here he defends Michele Bachmann's $2 a gallon gas claim based on testimony about a different issue and a different bill.
