Sarah Palin attacks Canada's health-care system, exposes bottomless well of ignorance and stupidity

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I'm sorry, I just can't put this delicately. I'm a Canadian, after all, and our universal health-care system is a key component of our national identity, of our just society, and of what makes this country great.

Sarah Palin, spewing bullshit (as usual) as she promotes her book, should just shut the fuck up. Because she hasn't got a fucking clue. All she's got is her right-wing propaganda, the nonsense she passes off as common sense, and an astonishing capacity to expose her ignorance at every turn.

Confronted by Mary Walsh (playing "Marg Delahunty"), a Canadian comedian from the popular show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, who asked if she had "any words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish that kind of socialized medicine we have up there," Palin issued this nugget of anti-wisdom:

Well, my answer was too keep the faith. My answer was to keep the faith. Cause that common sense conservatism can be plugged-in there in Canada too. In fact Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed. So thank you, keep the faith.

As I have noted here before, our single-payer public system is supplemented by extensive private coverage and care. What the public system -- the government -- provides is basic coverage for all Canadians. This is actually done on a province-by-province basis. Many Canadians then either get additional coverage through their employer (as I do) or buy supplemental private insurance, which is generally affordable. This additional coverage reduces out-of-pocket costs and secures access to more substantial care. For example, what I get through work covers almost the full cost of prescription drugs and provides me (and my dependents) access to extensive eye and dental care, among other things. And there is choice. I chose my family doctor, and the government does not restrict my access to the excellent care we have, contrary to what dishonest American conservatives would have everyone believe.

Here's Think Progress with more:

In Canada, "the private sector" is already "a crucial part" of the Canadian health care system. The federal government finances the basic health care plan, (through a "Medicaid-like arrangement in which Canada's 10 provinces and 2 territories jointly fund" the system), but care is independently organized and managed by each province or territory. Canadians spend billions on private supplemental coverage and physicians work in private practices. Everyone has access to care, and patients "can see any doctor they want anywhere in the country with no copays or deductibles."

While the system has longer waiting periods for certain elective surgeries, research suggests that Canadians do enjoy better access to care and "superior" health outcomes compared to Americans. According to a Commonwealth Fund of deaths that could have been prevented "with access to quality medical care in the leading 19 industrialized countries," the United States ranked last and Canada came in sixth.

In other words, our system is extremely good and Palin, like her right-wing ilk, is extremely wrong.

Here's the Palin-Walsh clip: