You don’t want government-provided health care

There is an old joke about the accountant who got his first job despite low marks in college. When asked the sum of 1 plus 1 he replied, “How much would you like it to be?”

In Australia, the government provides health care to its population through a system much like Medicare. People pay a tax levy based upon their earnings. The government provides health care. They describe this scheme as one of the world’s most accessible, comprehensive, and affordable systems. One plus 1 equals 11.

Your sports page described Jason Day’s Australian mum’s lung cancer diagnosis in Australia as bleak. It goes on to say that she was brought to Ohio for surgery and is now doing so well she has returned to work in Australia.

This isn’t the only story of patients being cured under America’s “failing health care system.” If single-payer is the answer advocated by our leaders, why didn’t it work out for Mrs. Day? Of course, skeptics will say Jason Day’s wealth saved his mum. I say freedom of choice and free enterprise saved her. Apparently, there was nowhere in Australia she could be saved by the government-operated Medicare scheme.

Single-payer advocates believe government-provided care is the most cost effective, efficient way to provide health care as a basic human right. It would appear that some lives, however, are worth more than others when government bureaucrats allocate health care. One plus 1 equals 2, every time.

This story was originally published June 4, 2017 at 9:20 AM with the headline "You don’t want government-provided health care."