10 over-the-top warnings from Americans about Canadian health care

(Article updated September 26, 2017)

In an interview with an Alaska radio station, Vice President Mike Pence’s warned that Canada’s health care system is failing. You might have heard that before. For nearly half a decade American pundits, publications and politicians have been kind enough to warn us that our socialized health care system is the filthiest, most evil and dangerous system on the planet. Here are some of the more over-the-top examples:

1. “Dear Canadian: You make socialized medicine sound ideal. But whenever private enterprise is replaced by a government institution, incentive is thwarted and the quality of services usually deteriorates.” —Dear Abby, April 25, 1977

2. “To receive major health care in two weeks would be only a dream for most Canadians.” —Susan Riggs,
Knight-Ridder, June 22, 1994

3. “People come here from every country . . . including Canadians fleeing from the substandard quality, cruel rationing and long waiting lists of their ‘free’ socialized medicine.” —Paul Craig Roberts, Scripps Howard News Service, June 23, 1994

4. “Canada’s disastrous health care system survives because of . . . the widespread fear that any reform might constitute ‘Americanization.’ ” —Jonah Goldberg, National Review, Nov. 25, 2002

5. “Did the fact that Canada has a socialist, government-run health care system—similar to the kind that President Obama wants to ram down the throats of Americans—kill acclaimed actress Natasha Richardson?” —Matthew Vadum, The American Spectator, March 21, 2009

READ: Five simple ways to improve Canadian health care

6. “For cardiac bypass surgery, patients in Ontario are told they may have to wait six months for a surgery that Americans can often get right away.” —Sen. Mitch McConnell, June 8, 2009

7. “Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed.” —Sarah Palin, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, November 25, 2009

8. “In Canada,they have a lottery. They have a lottery system. Who gets to go see a doctor this month in Canada?” —Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Program, July 15, 2009

9. “Is government-run health care in Canada taking away parents’ rights?” —Steve Doocy, Fox & Friends, February 23, 2011

10. “I probably don’t need to tell the people in Alaska about the failings of national socialized health care because it’s right in our neighbour and you see the results every day.” —Vice President Mike Pence, interview with Alaska radio station, 2017