My latest in PJ Media is a VIP article. I am happy to be able to offer you a 5% discount on becoming a VIP member at PJ Media. Just enter the code SPENCER when you sign up here.
Even after all these years of Obamacare, it’s still easy to find “experts” who will insist that government-run, single-payer healthcare, such as the system that is in place in Canada, is preferable to a system in which everyone pays for the medical attention he needs instead of paying the government for medical attention for everyone. And we’re likewise told that Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program is a truly compassionate solution for people who have nothing to look forward to but a life of pain and misery. But as is so often the case with programs that leftists favor, the reality is considerably uglier than the hype, as a 79-year-old Canadian Roman Catholic priest has just discovered.
The Daily Caller reported Saturday that Fr. Larry Holland “fractured his hip after falling in his bathroom on Christmas Day 2025.’ That sort of thing is going to happen when you’re getting on in years, and so when Fr. Holland “subsequently went to Vancouver General Hospital to seek treatment for his injury,” he wasn’t expecting anything except routine medical procedures. Instead, he was in for an ugly surprise.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Brent Horton says
Is anyone actually surprised by this? Anyone at all?
Westman says
Terrific health system – the average wait for anything beyond your General Practitioner is an average of 29 weeks and if close to the actuarial table lifespan, you get a suggestion for a referral to the euthanasia program which will quickly serve you.
Total MAiD, (Medical Assistance in Dying), deaths are approaching 100,000 in Canada. Oh Canada….
Imagine Bernie Sanders as a Canadian with a serious, possibly fatal, medical condition. They would offer to help him, “feel the burn”.
William Kemmler says
That ironic thing is that MAiD uses the same three-drug protocol that is used to execute condemned prisoners in the United States. Yep, you read that right. The same protocol used to put condemned prisoners to death in the United States is used to put Canadian citizens to death in the MAiD protocol.
Stage1: Administer an anesthesia to render the person unconscious
Stage2: Administer a paralytic agent to paralyze the unconscious person (ie. stop their breathing)
Stage3: Administer a drug agent to stop the heart rendering them dead
The three-drug execution protocol in a nutshell used to kill Canadian citizen. And somehow we’re supposed to believe that it’s the “compassionate” thing to do.
David Lakatos says
Politicalized Hospital.
Rarely says
The MAiD program is not as accessible as is hinted at. I personally knew two people who, in spite of being in tremendous pain (both with terminal cancer) did not get help from that program and died weeks after applying for it. This was within the past two years. It is a very difficult program to access.
Over all the universal health coverage in Canada works very well although there are backlogs (some overly long) but the wealthy don’t get to the front of the line and no one is without coverage. In many areas there is a shortage of doctors and/or nurses but over all it sure beats the alternative.
Beans🫘 says
You do get to jump the line in the British socialist healthcare system if you are an Afghan Syrian or something different.
Why? Because if you don’t speak English, you speak to your own language person who is in a separate specialized line only for your language speakers. If you speak English, you wait in the English line, where it is complicated. If you’re Afghan, you will move quicker and if you are a migrant, you jump the line ALWAYS because of your “need” is higher.
Why do you think Muslims are eager to get to the uk? Muslims with cancer, aids, other diseases are trying hard to get there. Should we blame them? I don’t. You would do it too if you had the chance. It’s free an you are a vip.
gravenimage says
Grimly true.
James Lincoln says
Rarely,
Just wondering, have you personally used the Canadian health system?
Dave says
This would be an example of ‘evidence based medicine’ or ‘evidenced based practice’.
The evidence is clear. A person that is dead is no longer a concern for the medical practitioner or for whomever pays the bill, such as in socialized medicine.
gravenimage says
Canadian Hospital to Catholic Priest With Hip Injury: Drop Dead
………………………………………………….
*Just horrifying*, They probably think he should commit suicide because he is “too old”–and White and Christian–as well. I *cannot believe* that this is happening at hospitals. Inept or spotty care, sure–but such open disdain of their own citizens is still shocking. I suppose I am too naive…