
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 11, 1993                   TAG: 9308250328
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN S.P. ROBSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CANADIAN HEALTH-CARE MYTH

WOULD YOU eat in a restaurant whose owners ordered out? If the answer is no, you need to think hard about socialized medicine, and about the case of Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa. You also need to think about the ``restaurant critics,'' the media, who haven't reported what sounds to me like a major story.

For one of the dominant myths in the Canadian conventional wisdom is that our health-care system is not only ``world class,'' but also shows we are much nicer than the Americans. Ideology, selfishness and parsimony, we say, are the only things keeping the United States from adopting our system.

Never mind that the U.S. government spends 6 percent of the entire gross domestic product on health care, which accounts for half of all health-care spending in the United States.

Never mind that the allegedly nonexistent American spending on health care is one of the major items destroying the U.S. budget.

Never mind that U.S. Medicare spending rose from $85 billion (in current dollars) in 1989 to $132.8 billion in 1993, while spending on other U.S. federal government health programs rose from $48.4 billion to $105 billion.

Never mind that since the Canada Health Act was introduced, our real spending per person on health has risen 4.6 percent per year, compared to 4.4 percent in the United States.

The Canadian system has been criticized by the Fraser Institute, whose ``Waiting Your Turn'' project documents the growing lines of Canadians waiting for health care, often for critical procedures such as heart operations. We have warned Canadians and Americans alike that Canada uses the U.S. system as a safety valve, as a source of prompt, high-quality care that our system does not reliably provide. And we have spoken the ``R'' word - rationing.

But we have been ignored. People in both Canada and the United States persist in believing that our health-care system not only provides us with superb, timely, free medical treatment, but also reflects our good intentions. It is, in short, a national treasure.

So it was most remarkable that when Premier Bourassa suffered a recurrence of his cancer, he went to the United States for treatment. I am not criticizing his decision, for everyone should have the right to seek the best health care he can get.

What does concern me is that the premier should believe, as a matter of public policy, that our health-care system is superb but that, as a matter of private behavior, he is better off going to the United States. What about the rest of us?|The premier is clearly acting in his own self-interest, in his private life by getting the best available medical help for himself and in his public life by telling the voters what they want to hear. And there is nothing unusual about that.

What I want to know is, why didn't the Canadian and the U.S. media carry stories about the reasons Bourassa and other Canadians are seeking treatment in the United States? I do not mean that the media should have pounced on him in his affliction, though I do think they should have some questions about our health care for the premier of Quebec. What I do mean is, why haven't the media asked why - in medical, not political, terms - he thought it best to go to the United States for treatment. I am assuming Bourassa has made a sound decision, and I want the press to find out why it's sound.

If it's to save time, have they investigated the waiting lists for this procedure in Canada? If it's because the treatment isn't available here, have they investigated the age of Canada's medical equipment and the reasons for its shoddy condition? Have they investigated the impact of the Canada Health Act on our investment in medical equipment and facilities or on our supply of doctors? And if the United States adopts the Canadian system, where will we all go then - to Mexico?

I don't want to belittle Bourassa's courage in the face of cancer. But don't forget that every Canadian who gets that dreaded disease has the same fears, but everyone can't go to the United States for treatment.

\ John S.P. Robson is a policy analyst at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia. This article was distributed by the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.

by CNB