CTF: Time to unmask the American health-care boogeyman
When anyone proposes tinkering with health care delivery in Canada they are usually met with a loud and incessant “Canadians don’t want American-style health care!”
Canada officially recognizes 195 countries, but Canadians continuously fixate on the United States when comparing health-care systems. This belief warrants its own Latin name: argumentum ad americanum. Definition: the fallacy that any change to the Canadian health-care system would result in a dystopian caricature of the American system.
This argumentum ad americanum was on full display when Ernst & Young’s review of Alberta Health Services was released publicly on Feb. 3. The report identified strategies to save taxpayers nearly $2 billion every year, including expanding publicly-funded and independently-operated surgical facilities.
Given the government’s $70 billion debt, savings should be welcomed. But the New Democrat opposition responded to the report with their best Chicken Little impersonation.