What is the Future of Unionized Government Retiree Benefits?

I gaze into my crystal ball over at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.

Medical Bankruptcy Equal in Canada & the U.S.

While the reported incidence of "medical bankruptcy" in the U.S. is grossly overstated, an equally unsubstantiated claim is that a single-payer, government-monopoly health system would eliminate medical costs as a cause of bankruptcy. (If you troll the Internet, you'll find that it seems to be an article of faith.)

Indeed, I sort of fell for it myself, when I sarcastically noted that if the government exerts absolute control over citizens' access to medical services, and forbids them spending directly for care, they cannot go bankrupt from medical costs.

But then news from Canada led me to believe that people do go bankrupt from medical costs. After all, if you are sick enough and the government will not treat you in time, a lot of costly problems will pile up.

All we needed was some good research on the relative rates of medical bankruptcy in the two countries. Well! What do you know? Brett Skinner & Mark Rovere of The Fraser Institute has rode (ridden?) to the rescue with a well researched article concluding that the rate of medical bankruptcy is about the same in Canada and the U.S.

No "medical bankruptcy" under government-monopoly health care? Don't you believe it.

Medical bankruptcy in Canada

Another post at National Review Online's The Corner that addresses what happens when the government denies medical care in Canada (6/18 06:04 P.M. on the scroll).

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Canadian Cancer Patient

It's been a while since I've discussed my homeland, Canada, and I'm not usually one to traffic in horror stories of government-monopoly health care. But this story from Windsor, Ontario (right across the river from Detroit) is too appalling to pass up.

A 30-yr old man was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma: skin cancer that has migrated inside and invaded his chest and bowel. Although the skin cancer was diagnosed years ago, the stage IV was diagnosed late. Now, that may be because of the government monopoly's lack of access to specialists, but it may also be idiosyncratic. Even with the best access to health care, doctors can't catch everything.

In this case, what happened after the diagnosis is what's truly appalling. Because his home-province of Ontario does not have the capacity to treat this advanced cancer, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), which has absolute control over every Ontarian's insured health care, must contract with U.S. providers. Scheduled for treatment in Detroit, OHIP screwed up the paper-work and he could not go.

Once things were sorted out, OHIP no longer contracted with the hospital in Detroit (right across the river, as mentioned above), so he has to go to Buffalo, NY - four hours away.
Tragically, he hasn't been able to work, and his wife has just had a baby. The family relies on the charity of neighbors for the baby's clothes and other needs.

No "medical bankruptcy" under government-monopoly health care? Don't you believe it.

Research on "Medical Bankruptcy" is Analytically Bankrupt

The media re-broadcast an article that concluded that 62% of U.S. personal bankruptcies are "medical bankruptcies". The article was so off-base, John Goldman's Health Policy Blog nominated my dissection of it as an entry in the "Worst Study of the Year Award"!

Medical Bankruptcy Solved! (Actually: All Bankruptcy Solved!)

The myth of medical bankruptcy persists. Perhaps it's due to aggressive advertising campaigns. But when President Obama parroted the nonsense that one third of personal bankruptcies are caused by medical debt, even the mainstream media couldn't swallow it.

Well, I give up. Let's even ignore the fact that the government contributes to medical bankruptcy, and just accept the numbers trafficked by the advocates of government take-over of health care. I have the solution!

I recently blogged about orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Day's struggle to compete against the Canadian provincial government of British Columbia. It's a fight that he might yet lose, despite a four-year old Supreme Court of Canada decision that government-monopoly health care violates Canadians' civil rights.

One of the things that people "admire" about Canadian health care is that "nobody goes bankrupt paying medical bills." You may die waiting for diagnosis or treatment, but at least you ain't gone bankrupt.

What a simple solution! Bankruptcy is the legal consequence of being unable to pay debts. If people are free to spend money on things that they prefer, some will borrow more than they can pay back. Clearly, prohibiting people from spending money on health care, and taxing it away from them to fund a government-monopoly health-spending mechanism eliminates bankruptcy!

I can't believe that I never thought of this before. Why stop at medical costs? Surely, the government can abolish all bankruptcy by prohibiting people from buying cars, houses, jewelry, or paying for higher education themselves. Just tax them and have the government provide the goods and services. Bankruptcy solved!

After all, I don't think there was much bankruptcy in the old Soviet Union, Cuba, or North Korea.