WSJ on Canadian health care Supreme Court Decision

The Wall Street Journal comments today on the Canadian Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance.

Let's hope Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy were sitting down when they heard the news of the latest bombshell Supreme Court ruling. From the Supreme Court of Canada, that is. That high court issued an opinion last Thursday saying, in effect, that Canada's vaunted public health-care system produces intolerable inequality.

This ruling is a significant blow to Canada’s ailing publicly financed national health care system.

The Canadian ruling ought to be an eye-opener for the U.S., where "single-payer," government-run health care is still a holy grail on the political left and even for some in business (such as the automakers). This month the California Senate passed a bill that would create a state-run system of single-payer universal health care. The Assembly is expected to follow suit. Someone should make sure the Canadian Supreme Court's ruling is on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's reading list before he makes a veto decision.

The larger lesson here is that health care isn't immune from the laws of economics. Politicians can't wave a wand and provide equal coverage for all merely by declaring medical care to be a "right," in the word that is currently popular on the American left.

From former Canadian physcian Dr. Lee Kurisko --

I am very pleased with the results of the court decision. This may be the event that gets the dam to break and open things up to privatization in Canadian health care. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Martin stated yesterday in response to the decision, that their will be no two tier health care system in Canada. I am not sure how he can unilaterally rebut the Supreme Court. Mr. Martin claims that they are going to put more money into health care and fix its problems. But how? That is the same mantra that I have been hearing from the Canadian politicians for the last two decades and things keep getting worse and worse. Socialism simply doesn't work especially for something as incredibly complex as health care.