Sarah Palin’s Canadian Medical Visits: “Ironic” Or More?
» 13 comments
It seems that when Sarah Palin criticized the current socialized Canadian health care system last fall, she knew what she was talking about (sort of). Palin, who during her attack on the similar system proposed in the United States coined the term “death panels,” admitted to a crowd of supporters in Calgary, Alberta that in her youth she and her family would sneak into Canada from their remote Alaskan town for health care. She told the audience:
“My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not — this was in the ’60s — we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada…”
The fact that she understood the irony is probably a sign that she could predict what left-leaning political commentators in the United States were going to do with that quote. The blogosphere has called it “self-destructive” and “explicit endorsement of liberal policy,” with many others choosing simply to relay the soundbite with little context other than her opposition to socialized health care in the US and her comments against the current Canadian system. Some offered the fact that she had told a similar story before that sent her family on a trip to Juneau (nearly equidistant to her home in Skagway, it appears), instead. The context is that the health care the Palin family received was from a different type of socialized health care system than the one currently in place in the country.
Ah, but here’s the rub. What sort health care system did Canada and/or the Yukon Territory have in the 1960’s? Politico notes that federal health insurance was not put into effect until 1972, although Yukon, the territory Palin admitted to sneaking into for health insurance, did have a government-subsidized plan beginning in 1960. Talking Points Memo claims Canadian Medicare was implemented in 1966 on a national level. The Canadian health care system as it exists today began to take shape in the 1980s with the Canada Health Act becoming more explicit in how health care funds should be distributed. Also, crossing the Canada/US border — particularly as far north as where Palin was, was not exactly difficult.
Socialist or not, should Palin be interested still in running for the presidency in 2012, making comments that could be easily interpreted to contradict her previous statements is a dangerous habit, one that she should begin to curb. She has already been called out on everything from her double-standard on the politically incorrect use of the word “retarded” to the fact that Alaska’s minimal population means her state reaps more benefits from the federal government than any other. She cannot afford the political assault that comes from making statements like these, innocent though they may be, because the history behind them is cloudy enough and her reputation shaky enough for her opponents to claim mischievous intentions.
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13 comments
@Frances
Nice Article!
“Palin admitted to sneaking into for health insurance”
Where exactly did she admit to “sneaking”.
You accuse her of sneaking in for free health care. However, she was discussing, because of their proximity to Canada, her PARENTS would travel to White Horse for medical treatment. Treatment that they would have paid for.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/Palin_as_a_child_went_to_Canada_for_care.html
There’s a double standard all right, but it’s not coming from her.
Perhaps Ms Palin should keep in mind: I voted for the bill before I voted against it and how what could be explained could also be misconstrued.
sarainitaly you sound like an intelligent person. Why do you always take up for Sara Palin?? I don’t get it.
Wow, Is anyone actually surprised by this?
Jess
http://www.total-anonymity.us.tc
OMG. LIttle Ms. Bo Peep who lost her sheep has returned!
Atten: Ted and Royal King.
Get back to work immediately!
P.S.
The irony is that terrible shallow individuals like to pass the talking point that it is just Canadians that go to the United States for healthcare because the health care is so great here and easily accessible. MY ASS!!!!!!!!
Good post. I understand exactly why the Heath family went to Whitehorse–Skagway hardly has Band-Aids available. But why did she tell a different version of this story to the Skagway News and in her book?
I think it’s because she can’t help but pander to her audiences. Or she’s just a compulsive fibber. A story recently appeared in the Iowa Independent pointing out how her book completely fictionalized her campaign stop in Grand Rapids. I’d use the word “fabricated.” You can read the story here:
http://tinyurl.com/yhqzpqc
She does this sort of thing again and again. Just a few example: She said she was “exonerated” by the first investigation into Troopergate, when it was plain for all to see that she hadn’t been. She claimed she produced Trig’s birth certificate to stop rumors about his parentage, yet she never has. That whole “bridge to nowhere” kerfuffle should have tipped people off right away. There are many more such examples.
The furor over her comment is misplaced. This is about her trustworthiness, not whether she used socialized medicine. (Yes, I agree, it’s also about her terrible inability to control her mouth.) If people want to get all worked up about her hypocrisy, then they should investigate whether and to what extent her children and grandchild use free Indian Health Care Services because Todd Palin is part Yup’ik.
http://tinyurl.com/yekl8jg
Another lie about Gov. Palin debunked.
***
C4P: It’s Only 9:47 A.M. on the West Coast and We’ve Already Gotten Multiple Walk-Backs on Part of the Canadian Healthcare Story (Ben Smith Updates)
http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2010/03/its-only-947-am-in-west-coast-and-weve.html
*
Hot Air — New Palin “scandal”: She supports Canadian socialized medicine or something
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/08/new-palin-scandal-she-supports-canadian-socialized-medicine-or-something/
same2u
Yeah. that’s why people in the south western states go to Mexico to have their dental work done. We’ve got such wonderful health care.
And Sara, the story you cite shows Yukon had federal medical care in 1960.
Bill Adkins says:
March 9, 2010 at 6:32 am
No, it reads:
ALSO: Socialized medicine apparently only kicked in in Yukon in 1972, post-Palin.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/Palin_as_a_child_went_to_Canada_for_care.html
Regardless of when exactly it kicked in, as Americans, they would have paid. Her point was that they traveled there because it was close. And the larger point was that she was five years old! Why thehell is she being attacked for something her parents did when she was FIVE?
blueblogger says:
March 8, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Why do you defend lies being spread by the media?
No where does she say they “sneaked”.
Sara, Sara, Sara – it says the same thing for 1960 as it does 1972. It kicked in, perhaps, in a evolution, but it was there. As for Palin paying for it (or her parents) that it was readily available is also a point.
“Inventory to the Records of the Yukon Government, YRG 1, Series 12, Territorial Treasurer Records, 1951-1969″
The Yukon Health Insurance Service (Y.H.I.S.) came into existence on July 1, 1961 to provide hospital insurance for all residents of the Yukon Territory. Its three objectives were: to relieve territorial residents of the burden of hospital costs; to assure hospitals of payment for services rendered; and to raise standards of hospital care.
Y.H.I.S. provided hospital insurance for Yukon residents without cost, as long as they had lived in Yukon for ninety days. The Yukon Government administered the plan. The federal Department of National Health and Welfare took responsibility for the standards of nursing, equipment, and medical aspects for the Yukon’s three hospitals (Whitehorse, St. Mary’s in Dawson, and Mayo).
The point is that this was the closest facility for her parents to take their son, when he was injured. And she was five years old. No where does she say they sneaked, nor that they obtained free health care. Or that that was their objective. Or that she would condone “sneaking” into another country for free health care.
She was five years old and people are trying to accuse her of “sneaking” into another country, and stealing free health care…how much more insane can you get?
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