Canada Sending Mothers to US to Give Birth

I used to support a single payer plan for national health insurance. Now, I am very dubious. Here’s one reason from Canada. From the story:

A problem in Canada’s hospitals is sending scores of pregnant women south of the border to have their babies. Carri Ash of Chilliwack, B.C. was sent to the U.S. to have her baby after her water broke on Sunday, ten weeks ahead of schedule. “And they came in and said ‘you’re going to Seattle,’” she said. Ash’s hospital couldn’t handle the high-risk pregnancy. Doctors searched for another hospital bed, but even hospitals in Vancouver, B.C. didn’t have a neo-natal bed. “So two provinces didn’t have enough room, so I have to go to another country,” said Ash.

The next election will put health care on the table. Some point to Canada as the way to go. I think not. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people in Canada can’t even obtain a primary care physician.

We’d better contemplate this crucial issue carefully. Once we go down a road as a country, it will be almost impossible to turn around.