A Stitch in Haste

You may have heard about the 1-in-13,000,000 case of identical quadruplets born to a Canadian couple...

...just not in Canada:

Calgary physicians sent Jepp to Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, Mont., where she gave birth on Sunday -- no Canadian neonatal intensive care unit had enough space for all four newborns.

Not just "no room at the inn" in Calgary -- but no facilities available anywhere in Canada.

And this wasn't a quick traipse across the border:

The Jepps drove 325 miles to Great Falls for the births because hospitals in Calgary were at capacity, Key said.

Now, the hospital in question, Benefis, is indeed highly regarded for its neonatal ICU facilities. But isn't that the point? This wasn't Seattle, Detroit or Buffalo. Access to advanced healthcare is, at least in this instance, better in Nowheresville, Montana, than in the entire nation of Canada!

The Fundamental Theorem of Socialized Medicine remains uncontroverted: Health care, like all scarce resources, must be rationed. The only question is whether the rationing will be determined by patients, physicians and insurers, or by politicians and bureaucrats.

---

A staff blogger at the Daily Mail:

In capitalistic America, the concentration is on health. In socialistic Canada, the emphasis is on paying the bills. The story ended with how much the American hospital charged. Looks like a quarter-million bucks for a 5-day stay. Given that it was the quadruple birth of 2-pound babies two months premature, I'd say it was a bargain.

Free health care is not free: It's merely prepaid -- often by others -- via taxes. And what good is "free health care" that doesn't exist on your side of the border?

Yet this "free if you can get it" mindset is what every single Democratic presidential candidate envisions as "enlightened" public policy.

One wonders where the next Jepp family will drive to if we adopt ClintobamwardsCare.

More thoughts from John Ray, American Thinker, Kevin, M.D., Medpundit, Small Dead Animals.