For Immediate Release: September 28, 2004

President Clinton’s Surgery Example of Why the Single-Payer Model is Bad for Americans

SAN FRANCISCO – On a recent Thursday, President Clinton was diagnosed with blocked arteries, and on the following Monday, he had successful quadruple bypass surgery. This is the kind of efficient and advanced health care that Americans would not enjoy if Canada’s single payer model were adopted, according to health-care expert Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, who today releases her latest book, Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health-Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer. Pipes is a Canadian who has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.

Pipes’ solution to America’s failing health-care system would give consumers greater control over their health-care spending and decisions. “The purpose of this book is to educate policymakers, legislators, and consumers about where we’ve gone wrong with health care and how we can fix it,” said Pipes. “The remedy is less government intervention.”

While many states and the U.S. Congress consider legislation to allow for the reimportation of drugs into the U.S. from Canada and other foreign countries, Pipes details why following in the Canadians’ footsteps by introducing price controls on the drug industry will ultimately hurt Americans, Canadians and the drug industry.

“Miracle Cure explains why reimporting drugs into the U.S. from Canada and other countries is a short-term solution that will have long-term damaging effects,” said Pipes. “One of many reasons is that pharmaceuticals are expensive to develop, and unless they can be priced competitively, we won’t enjoy the next generation of innovative and life-enhancing drugs.”

Also stressing the effect of government-run health care on real people, Pipes recounts the story of Joshua Fleuelling (Flew-el-ing), an 18-year-old suffering an asthma attack who wound up brain dead from lack of oxygen after being turned away from a Toronto emergency room due to a shortage of space for additional patients. This is just one of many heartbreaking examples of the system’s failure.

Pipes advocates moving away from employer-provided health insurance and embracing options that allow individuals to control their own health care. She encourages free market ideas like Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and reducing costly federal and state regulations and mandates. She uses Canada’s government-run system as an example of what not to do.

A Canadian, Pipes came to the U.S. in 1991 to take the reins as president of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute think tank. “Being from Canada, I know first hand the health-care repercussions of the Canadian government’s system—long waiting lines, outdated equipment, unavailability of many of the latest medications available in the U.S., and a shortage of doctors, who flee to the U.S. to make more money.”

Pipes urges legislators to read the book and not fall prey to popular but misguided intentions. “Blaming the pharmaceutical industry, taking advantage of Canada’s price controls or implementing a single payer, government-run system as exists in Canada will not provide Americans with what they want—health care that is affordable, accessible, and of the highest quality.

Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer is now available on Amazon.com. The book will be officially released at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Sept. 28, 2004. Please go to www.pacificresearch.org for more information.

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About PRI
For more than two decades, the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has championed individual liberty through free markets. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the principles of limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility.