John Mayer, a singer with a lovely voice, was asked his opinion on politics and health care. His perfect answer?

Have you ever heard me play guitar? I’m really fucking good. You know what I’m bad at? Answering questions about public health care. This is not in my wheelhouse. Do you have any questions about music?

Brilliant. He has risen in my esteem.

Via Big Hollywood

For some time I’ve wondered why there isn’t more hue and cry from the insurance industry about Obamacare. When you consider that a socialized option would pretty much put the insurance companies out of business, the silence makes no sense.

What makes even less sense are the companies like Progressive (aptly named) and AARP who are actively pushing for the option.

Take AARP as an example. They cater to the retiree crowd, right? The baby boomers who are now hitting the so-called Golden Years. Such people are likely to be hurt the worst by Obamacare. While I don’t agree with Palin’s use of the term “Death Panel”, I do understand the sentiment behind the hyperbole. In a publicly funded system that will inevitably stretched too thin, there has to be a cost-benefit analysis done on patients to determine if they are worth the expensive treatments.

Pensioners, despite years of tax-paying service to their nation, are worthless. They no longer contribute, and socialist governments only ever think in the instant-gratification short term. The government doesn’t care about the 45 years you spent paying taxes - they only care that they now have to pay you to play golf and crochet.

By withholding expensive, life saving treatment to seniors, the government not only benefits by saving money on that treatment. By pushing you into an early grave, the government gets to stop paying out your Social Security every month. Bonus!

But I digress. A lot. Again, how does AARP benefit from this? Why are they pushing this so hard to their members?

It benefits because along with the rest of the overhaul, Obama wants to institute changes to Medicare Advantage, the current public option for seniors.

Medicare Advantage is a catch-all program for low-income seniors which allows them to choose their drug insurance plan from a variety of companies. Basically, a senior pays into the program, picks an insurance company to go with, and the government subsidizes that company for the cost of the senior’s prescriptions. Everybody wins. (Note: This is different from the Medicare program, which is fully single payer, government run)

So if Obama cuts or eliminates Medicare Advantage, what will those seniors do? Well, they will either go directly to Medicare (the government single-payer option) or they will be forced to buy a supplementary package with a company like… AARP!

Currently, this supplementary drug option - called MediGap - accounts for 70% of AARP’s annual income. How much nicer would things be if they were the only game in town, huh?

Despite an insurance industry report [PDF] that stated Medicare Advantage led to healthier seniors overall, the Obama government wants to slash $150 billion from the MA budget to make way for “healthcare reform”. Baby, bathwater.

Seniors in Medicare Advantage spent fewer days in a hospital, were subject to fewer hospital re-admissions, and were less likely to have “potentially avoidable” admissions for common conditions ranging from uncontrolled diabetes to dehydration, on a risk-adjusted basis, according to a new analysis of publicly available data from AHRQ.

So the administration wants to throw out a program that is actually working, and replace it with a full-on socialized system, or support cronyism with friends at AARP.

A new report just released today on HealthReform.gov is touted with these quotes by Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius is interesting:

“We will protect seniors - not burden them with out of pocket costs,” said Vice President Biden. “The bottom line is, seniors will be better off under what we are proposing, and not a dollar from the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for health insurance reform.”

Right. Because they’re not cutting Medicare - they’re cutting Medicare Advantage. The one that promotes patient choice.

Under health insurance reform, seniors will get better care and their health care costs will go down, said Secretary Sebelius. Reform will strengthen Medicare, cut drug costs, and help ensure all seniors get the high-quality, affordable care they deserve.

Madame, that sounds more like a threat than anything.

It is true - I’m not denying it - that Medicare Advantage is more expensive than Medicare. But it provides patients with a choice in who they deal with, instead of an overarching, meddling government single-payer.

The leftist ideology for decades has been My Body, My Choice. That choice does not seem to apply to basic health care.

So last night as I was finishing up some client work and getting ready to settle in for a night of Mad Men Season 1 and a pitcher of martinis, I got fished. Not phished, fished.

The White House, as you know, has put out a call for citizens to report their neighbors and friends for “fishy” opinions about the ObamaCare legislation. Can’t have those pesky serfs thinking for themselves, after all.

Since this debate started a few months ago, I have been a go-to resource for many of my American friends to better understand the socialist healthcare system we live under in Canada. For good or for ill, I have put American journalists and bloggers in touch with patients, doctors, economist and whatnot from Canada to learn more about what they’re facing with ObamaCare. I have even shared my own experiences.

Last night, an agitator for a company that prides itself on being of the “community organizing” (read: race baiting and grievance mongering) ilk found me on Twitter and began “debating” the issue of socialist healthcare with me.

His facts were terrible, he didn’t want me to use the term “socialist” because it’s “scary” (seriously, he wants to rebrand socialism to be more palatable), and he was clearly being paid for these talking points. I know a PR/professional agitator when I smell one.

He accused the right of violence, despite my mentioning the racial violence that took place in St. Louis at the hands of union thugs.

He accused the right of not being willing to discuss options, despite ABC and the White House’s unwillingness to brook dissent during discussions (not so much discussions as preaching to the choir).

I’m sure he’s sent his little email off to flag@whitehouse.gov about the uppity Canadian chick, which amuses me more than frightens me. But he’s not going to shut me up. While I adhere to the rules about funding foreign political groups and parties (unlike say, George Soros), I still have a right to discuss my experiences under a system that my closest neighbors are considering. A country that sends its medical students to Canadian universities. A country which has for years milked our own doctors out. And a country that is the last best hope for desperately ill Canadians to receive care.

I have to admit I was pretty surprised at being put on the “fishy list”. Clearly the message is getting through.

The second half of my health care interview with Lisa Farrar Wellman is up at Smart Girl Nation. In this half we discuss the people who are tasked to vote on HR 3200, its contents, and a final message.

Americans, I can’t say this enough: Look toward the French, the Swedes, the Swiss, heck even the Israelis. Do NOT look to Canada to find the answer to your troubles.

Lisa Farrar Wellman from Smart Girl Nation asked me to sit down with her and talk about Canadian health care.

Facing the prospects outlined in HR 3200, many Americans are vastly uneducated on the Canadian system. They truly believe - like they believed about Obama - that it’s all Skittles pooping unicorns up here in our hospitals.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here is the first half of my interview with Lisa. The second half will be up tomorrow.

Mark Steyn writes an article in Maclean’s about Canadian artists who live abroad (read: the USA), but mentions something very timely for our American friends as they stare down the barrel of the socialized health care gun.

Forget about the “health,” too. Proponents of government health care like to point out that in the United States life expectancy is 78.11 years, whereas in Ireland it’s 78.24 years, Germany 79.26, New Zealand 80.36 and Canada 81.23 years. For a while now, I’ve taken to responding that, once a society gets childhood mortality under control and observes basic hygiene, it’ll swing through its three-score-and-ten with the bonus of a few frequent-flyer miles at the end, and then I’ll usually cite a less obvious comparison: Libya? 77.26 years. Albania? 77.96 years. Bosnia and Herzegovina? 78.5. Boy, nothing like civil war and ethnic genocide to ramp up those life-expectancy numbers! And any American approaching his 78th birthday and minded to emigrate to Canada or, better yet, Macau (life expectancy 84.36 years) should bear in mind that these variations likely owe more to factors other than the health system—i.e., the high homicide rate among the African-American community, and other subjects from which the multiculturally squeamish would rather avert their gaze. And sure, when you’re getting up there, an extra three years in Thunder Bay or Trois-Rivières sounds pretty sweet, even if you’ll be spending much of it with your legs crossed: a recent report in Le Journal de Montréal revealed that severely incontinent Quebecers (that’s to say, going to the bathroom 12 times a night) wait up to three years for a simple half-hour procedure that could give them a decent night’s sleep.

Macau. Sounds nice. Perhaps Americans could look to Macau for a health care solution. Believe me, it couldn’t be any worse that what they’re thinking of now.

Again, for you slow and stubborn types: What America has now is not working for the majority. What Canada has now is not working for the majority. It’s time to look elsewhere for a solution instead of comparing these same apples and oranges.

Steven Crowder does a road trip to Quebec and comes back saying all the things I’ve said for years: Waiting times, dirty hospitals, misdiagnoses, doctor and drug shortages, and botched surgeries.

This video is looong, at just over 20 minutes, but I am making it MANDATORY for my readers. There will be a quiz later. So grab a coffee and settle in. DO IT!

Remember what RightGirl always says: “Free” “Health” “Care” is three lies for the price of one.

Tonight I will be on Raisin’ Hale with the lovely and brilliant Tabitha Hale on RFC Radio. It’s 10pm Eastern, the link is here, and you can listen in from anywhere.

Tabitha invited me to come on her show because Obama and the Obamunauts are threatening to institute a Canadian-style healthcare system. My hypothesis is that it’s because such a large group of lefty voters - the Baby Boomers - are now reaching an age where healthcare is so important to them. So I wanted to give a little insight into what America was in for by aiming for the single-payer, nationalized system.

My willingness to chat with Tabitha was not purely altruistic, either. By downgrading healthcare to such a degree, the United States will place a huge burden on other countries that currently rely on them for top-notch care. Tabitha and I discuss medical tourism from Canada, as well as the high-profile emergency and unique cases that come in from all over the world to receive care in America.

In addition, we specualte on which countries will eventually come to fill the void that America will be leaving once its system crumbles the way ours has.

Tabitha will be in the chat room to interact and take questions and comments on the subject. I do hope you’ll tune in. For the Canadians, I know you’ll have something to say on the matter. And for the Americans, you owe it to yourselves and your families to know what’s in store if the Democrats get their way.

No, we’re not still talking about Dita Von Teese. We’re talking about dinner.

Strange, but I was having this exact conversation the other night, as I was cooking the living hell out of a couple of pieces of chicken. Then this article pops into my inbox.

In an effort to eat compassionately, many people choose free-range chickens and eggs — assuming that the birds lived happy, high-quality lives before they became dinner. A free-range label, however, doesn’t guarantee your poultry had a worry-free existence.

Swedish researchers have discovered that, if farmers aren’t extremely careful, bacterial infections like E. coli can run rampant through free-range chicken flocks. The finding raises questions about what’s best for both animals and people.

There just doesn’t seem to be a safe, humane way to raise poultry for consumption. Battery chickens are crushed into tiny cages and usually fed steroids to grow large and fast for slaughter. Not cool.

But let me tell you a thing or two I learned about free range chickens while I was on the farm in Kansas. Chickens are damn disgusting. They will eat anything. We’d throw them leftovers from dinner, which often included chicken, and they would eat it. Disgusting cannibals! They also eat the eggs that they lay. We won’t even go into the amount of poop they manage to get in their food and water… instead let’s talk about something even more gross.

Free range chickens could theoretically survive the summer months without being fed by humans. Here’s how. They eat bugs, right? In fact, they gorge on them. So, they shit the bugs out, and the chicken shit attracts more bugs! The chickens then consume their own feces which is now full of yummy bugs.

Hungry? Didn’t think so.

The chickens at Castle Argghhh! Farms weren’t for consumption, but for eggs. Still, watching them was almost enough to put me off my dinner.

Almost. Instead I just cooked the high holy hell out of whatever chicken I’m about to eat.

Enjoy your dinner.

Canadians with chronic illnesses wait longer to see medical specialists than counterparts in seven other developed countries, a new international survey suggests.

Only 40 per cent of Canadians with chronic illnesses who took part in the survey reported waiting less than four weeks to see a specialist. And 42 per cent said they had to wait more than two months - substantially longer than counterparts in the seven other countries.

Germany, a country we had to go in and dismantle due to its run-amok socialism, is doing better than we are, because it doesn’t subscribe to the single-payer system. Only communist countries like Cuba and Canada make it illegal to source your own health care.

Yet still Canadians can’t bring themselves to do anything about it.

Despite the negatives, only 16 per cent of the Canadian respondents said the country’s health-care system should be completely rebuilt. Among the eight countries, only Dutch and British respondents were less likely to think their entire systems needed to be overhauled.

Canadians fought harder to save the Hockey Night in Canada theme song than they do to save their own lives. Lemmings.

There is so much that America can look forward to under its new socialist overlords. High taxes that will pay for those weird 4-inch airbrushed acrylic nails that unemployed black women are so fond of, high heating and energy costs to save the environment because only liberals have the ability to influence the weather, and Canadian-style “free” “health” “care” (three lies for the price of one).

Welcome, Americans, to my world.

A third health region in Saskatchewan said Tuesday it has been reusing syringes, but also suggested that patients aren’t at great risk of infection.

The Sun Country Health Region, in the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan, said syringes were reused occasionally in the operating room at Weyburn General Hospital to inject medication into an intravenous bag.

As an aside, our socialist government provides clean syringes for addicts in many cities across Canada. Hospitals? Not so much.

Have fun, America!

Average ER waiting time nears one hour in the U.S., CDC says

Oy. An hour? A whole hour? Oh the humanity! Wait till St. Barack of the Church of Democrats brings in nationalized health care, and wait times average in the double digits.

Erm, just try to get over the name of the doctor involved.

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared.

In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO’s department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa.

We’ve been saying forever that AIDS mainly affects men who have sex with men. They do so with little thought for tomorrow, and with zero respect for themselves and their partners. How on earth did the WHO ever get it into their heads that this was going to harm you and I? Well, they got it into their heads because there was money to be made. The more of us who jumped on board, the more of us who believed the hype, the more of us who would donate money and push for funding from world governments.

It’s like global warming, folks. Call me in 25 years, and we’ll talk about that.

Here in Ontario, our health care money goes toward the all-important task of supplying queers with vaginae. In the UK, it is spent to staple fat people’s stomachs - something that only rich women in Hollywood used to have done.

Britain’s obesity epidemic has reached such an extent that the number of people having stomach surgery has shot up by 41 per cent in just one year.

New figures show there were 3,459 gastric bypass operations last year for obesity - up from 2,448 the year before.

Each operation costs the NHS around £7,000 - meaning last year the NHS paid more than £24 million for gastric bypass surgery alone.

Gastric bypass operations, which cut of part of the stomach and intestine, are normally only performed on people who are so obese that their life is in imminent danger from heart attack or stroke.

A couple of things: First of all, kudos on doing something for £7,000 to stave off thousands of pounds of care in later years from diabetes, stroke, heart conditions etc.

BUT: I worry that not enough is being done to make sure people don’t gain the weight back. See, a lot of people think the surgery is a miracle cure. It’s not. I have talked to dozens of people who have had it done, only to go back to their old habits and gain all the weight back. This is not a good use of public money. I realize that obesity is a serious issue (my fat ass reminds me of that every day!), but I would rather see the price of green peppers go down before I would want to see so much being spent on a cosmetic surgery that may not solve the long-term problem. Progressives are always on about “root causes”, and this is one area where I agree with them. You cannot change a lifetime of habit in a 3 hour surgery. A person has to be in the right headspace in order to lose weight. Sometimes it takes a health scare. Sometimes it’s a nasty comment from a trusted loved-one. Sometimes it is a positive, like wanting to be more fertile and start a family.

But like going into detox for that last time, you need to have hit your bottom (no fat pun intended) before you can lose the weight. The NHS is spending a lot of money on the symptom, not the disease.

‘These figures have gone up because people are realising that surgical treatment can achieve long-term results if it is done in the right way and with adequate follow-up,’ he said.

The article doesn’t indicate - beyond the post-op care to avoid infection etc - just what kind of follow-up will be provided. We can only hope it will be weekly meetings with nutritionist, shrink, and personal trainer. And we can also hope that the patients actually attend.

Then again, if they are willing to attend those meetings, why not just give them a membership to a good health club for about £1,000, with all three of those people on hand to help them? Hell hath no fury like a good personal trainer. I should know - my ass is 6 inches smaller than it was in November. No surgery required.

Moving swiftly along …

I read this excellent article yesterday in the G&M, which gave me a sense of validation as I looked back on a very unhappy childhood.

Was I abused? No. Was I bullied? No more than the next kid. So what was it? I was afraid.

In the waiting room at the anxiety clinic at Montreal Children’s Hospital, Cory cheerfully draws, hums and skips like any other preschooler.

But when he is led into an observation room and spots 10 strangers - a team of doctors, medical students and therapists here to assess him - he squeezes his eyes shut and ducks behind his mother, pressing his face into her back.

“It’s the beginning of, hopefully, treatment,” says veteran child psychiatrist Klaus Minde, the clinic’s director who will assess Cory and attempt to treat him with some combination of medication, therapy and family counselling. It’s help the Merciers have been seeking for almost two years.

I remember the child psychologists, the school counsellors, and the bloody art therapy. I remember the days when no amount of cajoling, threatening or even striking me would get me to leave the house. My mother the housewife would call my father to come home from work - that was the big threat. Ooohhh, was I gonna get the belt? Frankly, I didn’t care if I did. Beat the shit out of me if you want to, but don’t make me go out there, into the world.

Some can’t sleep because they are tormented by phobias. Others are carefree kids at home, but are mute outside it - too afraid to speak to teachers, other children, even grandparents.

By the time they arrive at his clinic, many will have already been “through the mill,” as Dr. Minde described it in Cory’s case -cycling through family doctors, pediatricians, psychologists and social workers in a quest for the proper diagnosis and treatment.

Assessing whether a child has an anxiety disorder is often more art than science, with professionals relying on observations, clinical guidelines and interviews with parents and caretakers to try to distinguish odd or difficult youngsters from those with debilitating problems.

The Merciers began their quest for answers the summer Cory turned 3. He had been in daycare almost a year when his caretaker revealed that he never spoke while in her care.

Then came the crippling fear. “He’s even thrown up before daycare because he doesn’t want to go,” Ms. Mercier said.

Yes, I’ve been there, too. Throwing up on the bus almost every day only made them give me Pepto every morning. My murky pink breakfast. It was horrible.

As I grew from a child into a tween into an adolescent, the problem didn’t go away. It just changed. It became something different. Instead of shyness, it was anger. Instead of fear, it became wrath. There were more and more counselors and shrinks, especially when my mother was sick and dying. Mercifully, there was no more art therapy!

But once she was gone, we stopped. It wasn’t helping. My father and I just kept the struggle to ourselves. So if I didn’t leave the house for 5 or 6 months, that was nobody’s business but ours. He helped me keep my secret, even though we didn’t know what to call it.

Things may not have to play out that way for Cory and his family. He will have something important that I did not: He will have someone telling him he’s not the only one. It’s a stupid chemical imbalance, and it really can be treated. Maybe not during the developmental phases - hormones can really mess with the best intentions - but eventually.

I grew up with a secret, because we didn’t want to tell others. We kept it to ourselves. Other families did the same. We were all individuals. I know now that we weren’t, and we didn’t have to be. Cory will grow up with others who actually understand what he’s going through.

From today’s G&M comes the story of Sylvia de Vries, who had an unusually large tumor that wasn’t being treated swiftly enough in Ontario. So she made the trek south to the USA, got her surgery, got her chemo, and is alive and well as we speak.

What she’s not getting is her expenses ($60,000) reimbursed by the diaper-clad Ontario Health Minister, George “I fund sex changes” Smitherman.

The Ontario Health Insurance Plan says it won’t pay for the $60,000 cancer treatment because Ms. de Vries did not fill out the correct form seeking preapproval for out-of-country care.

As well, it says no medical documentation was submitted that indicated a delay in obtaining the service in Ontario would result in death or medically significant, irreversible tissue damage.

That administrative misstep has left Ms. de Vries, a 51-year-old corporate communications manager, with a staggering cancer bill. She has drained her savings, maxed out her credit cards, taken out a line of credit and relied on friends to hold a spaghetti-dinner fundraiser, which earned $11,125.

Clearly, something needs to be done. But what? Should Smitherman use his discretionary privilege to pay back her $60K?

Frankly, I don’t think so.

Ms. de Vries had the money - if not in cash, then still readily available - to seek the best treatment in the most expedient way. This is a benefit that many of us do not enjoy. She was able to make her escape and procure the care she needed to save her life. Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it can give you another 20 years or so to try and find it!

However, having said that, I feel that Ms. de Vries should be compensated in other ways. Perhaps the cost of surgery and treatment should be tax deductible. If this were the case for any of us who source outside medical care, perhaps we could eliminate a good deal of the red tape.

Maybe a settlement can be made for a portion of the care costs, equalling roughly what Ms. de Vries will have paid in Ontario and Canada health taxes. Or even let her live out the rest of her life free of Provincial taxes.

But I don’t think that the full amount should be refunded by the government. To do so is to go against what people like me have been asking for: the right to pay for our own medical care.

I’m actually on vacation this week, and am about to go sit by the pool, read a magazine, and work on adding some lifelike color to my pasty white skin. So here’s a roundup:

Why don’t they just call it cotton candy? Government renames Islamic terrorism as ‘anti-Islamic activity’ to woo Muslims

There is no compulsion in religion? British street gang forcing conversions to Islam, dealing drugs.

Cold Terror: Mohammed Mansour Jabarah conspired to blow up U.S. embassies in Singapore and Philippines, gets life term in prison

Bad time to be born in Montreal hospital: Doctors at a Montreal hospital are threatening to stop delivering babies this spring, saying the aging maternity ward is in a decrepit state of repair.

I don’t agree with this ruling, especially when young girls are being coerced into getting the HPV vaccine (which has not had enough time to be adequately tested) that you and I are funding: Men who pay for prostrate screening tests are not being discriminated against even though women get free breast cancer screening, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal said Thursday in a ruling it conceded would not end the public health controversy.

And for a great laugh: The Top 25 Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians

You know: Go the extra mile, work the extra hours, finish that impossible project, and reap the rewards.

But you shouldn’t be given incentives to do the most basic functions of your job. For that, you already get a paycheck. And if you perform those functions day after day, week after week, year after year, you get to keep your paycheck and not get fired. Not getting fired is a great incentive.

Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers at Canada’s largest research hospital will soon learn that cleanliness is not only next to godliness - it also brings them that much closer to a Timbit.

In an effort to persuade hospital workers to properly clean their hands, a roaming posse of infection control staff at University Health Network will give a $2 Tim Hortons gift certificate to some of those caught cleaning their hands at its Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals.

In the real world, if you do not perform the basic functions of your job, you lose it. A “disincentive”, I believe it’s called. Maybe that’s what we need, instead.

“I mean, if we do Hillary-care and socialized medicine in this country, where are the Canadians going to go for health care?” he [Rudy Giuliani] asked.

On the right side of the page (natch) is a Slatecard widget. Show your support for Rudy!

Today the word came out that Tony Snow, White House Press Secretary, has cancer of the liver. My father died from the very same thing - colon, spread to liver.

My mother, on the other hand, died when her cancer spread to her bones, much the way Elizabeth Edwards’ has.

No matter your political stripe, please join me in praying for the comfort of, if not the lives of, these two people. They have a hard road ahead of them, and they shouldn’t have the potholes and sharp stones of partisan politics in their paths to make the journey worse.