[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, within the past few weeks the Canadian 
Supreme Court has issued an opinion that it is unconstitutional for the 
State of Quebec to outlaw the private practice of medicine and private 
health care in the State of Quebec. This is an interesting development 
because we are frequently told that our neighbor to the north has 
solved their health care problems, while the United States languishes 
behind.
  In an editorial yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, they point out 
that the Canadian Supreme Court found that access to a waiting list is 
not the same as access to care, and, in fact, for surgery across the 
board, no matter what type of surgery, the waiting time is over 18 
weeks in Canada, and it would be longer if the United States were not 
just to the south of Canada. Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit probably 
takes a lot of the problems of the waiting lists in Toronto. Surely, 
those clamoring for a single payer system in this country must now 
rethink their position.
  The Wall Street Journal points out that there are two ways to 
allocate goods and services. One is by price and a market-driven 
economy, and one is by placing people in waiting lines as in a 
government-run system.
  Mr. Speaker, a doctor I knew from Cuba several years ago told me, 
sure, we have equality in our medical system in Cuba; unfortunately, 
that equality is absolutely at the bottom. We do not need to duplicate 
that here in the United States.

                          ____________________