Editing 79-10-A7 (section)

=== Transcript ===
A former British cabinet minister once said of government medical care "The demand
for free medical care quickly outruns any possible provision for it."

On the last broadcast I was talking about the Canadian health care system as
described in THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR by a Canadian journalist, F.S. Manor . Mr. Manor
also touched on a report from Sweden where socialized medicine has been in effect
a long time.

In this report an official in the Swedish health service said he was very much
against physical check-ups. He declared they were "expensive and wasteful since only
seldom would a doctor find any pathological condition." But then he went on to say
that if an incipient disease is discovered, "it prompts the patient to insist on
expensive modern treatment that will often prolong life for as many as 20 years, during
which time the patient will continue to make demands upon the state health services."

It is hard to believe but this man - part of the officialdom of government health
care in Sweden, is saying the state prefers that you die young if the alternative is
costly on-going care at state expense.

I have seen other reports from other countries bearing out this same idea that
some patients should be left to die if their treatment would be too prolonged and
costly to the taxpayers. This is done by simply putting them on a waiting list
until nature takes its course.

Getting back to Canada, Mr. Manor cites the increasing number of doctors who
leave Canada to practice in the United States. In Canada a moderately skilled doctor
has to see three times as many patients each day to earn as much as his American
counterpart. But it isn't just pay that prompts his move. His schedule is so heavy
that he can only spend an average of 10 to 11 minutes with each patient - that is
if they are all on time and passing each other on the way in and out of his office.

Recently the Canadian government put pressure on our government to halt this
migration of doctors to the U.S. and our government has now made it difficult for
Canadian physicians to move across the border.

Mr. Manor speaks from some personal experience. One third of every tax dollar
in Canada goes to pay for that "free" medical care. He estimates that he has paid
about $12,000 over the last five years for his so-called medical insurance.

Last year he was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver. He woke up in a hospital
where it was decided without benefit of X-rays that he only had swollen legs and
multiple abrasions end that he could go home.

Fortunately he has a personal physician who happens to be associated with that
hospital. X-rays were taken and a more thorough examination given. He had suffered
a concussion, an injured eye and a broken back. Even so there was no room or hospital
bed available so he remained on a stretcher in the emergency room. His $12,000 over
five years hadn't bought him much of an insurance policy. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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