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=Windsor's Chris Vander Doelen: 'Obamacare' will be costly=

**BY CHRIS VANDER DOELEN, THE WINDSOR STAR** MARCH 16, 2010 =Windsor Star columnist Chris Vander Doelen.=
 * **STORY**
 * **PHOTOS ( 1 )**

**Photograph by:** Dan Janisse, The Windsor Star
What an irony that just as the American health care debate reaches a fever pitch, Canadians are showing growing dissatisfaction with their government medical monopoly. Living on the border, we're inundated these days with the shrill American health care debate. It dominates U.S. news coverage, talk radio and the political websites. How many times have you had to roll your eyes while listening to an American politician claim that if only they could be allowed to make a few minor changes to funding, U.S. health care would be cheaper, faster and more easily accessed? Canadians are used to their experience being overlooked by Americans. But in this case their ignorance is going to cost them. We already know what a government monopoly entails. On this side of the border, the doctor shortage worsens by the day, waiting lists for tests and treatment grow longer and longer, and the bill for medical care is on the verge of bankrupting our senior governments. At the same time, our news pages are dominated by tales of unnecessary surgery, patients are delaying procedures as they lose faith in the system, and hospitals are demanding yet more funding from tapped-out taxpayers. Americans should know what they're getting themselves into with "Obamacare," because it's not going to work out the way they hope. The cost of government health care, especially, is the surprise that's going to bite them on the gluteus maximus if the ruling Democrats get their way on health care. They should look north to Canada first to see how much it's costing us these days to get limited access to our limited health care. If they think it's expensive now, they ain't seen nothing yet. But then, most Canadians don't have a clue how much they are actually paying for health care, either. Here's a hint: Whatever you think it's costing you, it's actually more. Last month, the Fraser Institute, the respected British Columbia free-market think-tank, released its latest study of health care spending, and the results were sobering, as usual. In the latest fiscal year for which we have figures, 2008-09, Canadians spent $121.6 billion on their "free" health care. That works out to $3,650 per Canadian. Of course, children and retirees and others who aren't working are unable to pay their share, so the cost is not distributed evenly. The academics at the Fraser (economists Nadeem Esmail and Milagros Palacios) used estimated federal and provincial tax burdens on individuals and families to estimate how much average-working Canadians shell out for health care through the taxes they pay. Those taxes include income taxes, but health care spending is also funded through sales taxes, property taxes, health levies, payroll taxes, licence fees, alcohol and cigarette taxes and other government fees. They found that a single working Canadian with an average cash income of $34,982 paid a total annual tax bill of about $14,543 in 2008-09. Of that, they paid an estimated $3,228 for their "free" health care. Not so cheap, after all, eh? Two Canadian parents with no children earned an average cash income of $85,548 between them in 2008-09. They paid a whopping annual tax bill of $39,857 that year. An estimated $8,847 of that went to health care. A family consisting of two parents and two children earning an average income of $104,131 between them paid $41,058 in taxes in 2008-09, $9,113 of which went toward health care. A single-parent family with two children earning $43,699 paid taxes of $12,563 in 2008-09 and paid $2,788 for health care that year. And no, the situation wouldn't be any better if "the rich" were forced to "pay their fair share," as the leftist activists inevitably shout as they wave their placards at the TV cameras. The rich already pay through the nose. The top 10 per cent of Canadian families by earnings -- those earning $223,632 per year and up -- paid taxes starting at $119,278 per household in 2008-09. A minimum of $26,476 of that was for health care taxes, or nearly triple the cost that year of the most expensive health care in the world, that of the U.S. Those in the second decile, families earning $118,520 that year, paid taxes of $51,781 that year, $11,494 went to health care. No wonder there's been a backlash against giving Windsor hospitals the levies they're seeking on local property tax rolls. We already know you can't fix what ails our health care by writing bigger cheques. Our own experience shows the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction on health care. Maybe we should prove it to them by reintroducing competition to our system again. © Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Parts highlighted in red show some form of biased material.

This story represents a one sided view of Canada’s health care costs. Chris Vander Doelen states that Canada spends a lot on health care, but they do not take health care inflation into concern. He also implies that the U.S. health care system is less expensive and more effective, and this is not true, so it is bias. The U.S. spends a much greater percentage of GDP on health care than most countries, including Canada. The U.S. has the greatest percentage of private-care spending in the industrialized world. Everywhere else in the world, spending is more in the hands of government, and is more effective. The best care in the world may be found in the U.S., but it is unavailable to the average person with an HMO, and certainly unavailable to the uninsured. Many statistics claim that medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.

