Brief Response from Dr. Robert McMurtry, Canadian orthopedic surgeon and former Dean of a medical school, to the internet hoax "letter from a Canadian friend"

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Click here to read “letter from a Canadian friend” at scopes.com

By Dr. Robert McMurtry

The fake letter is so patently ridiculous and written from an right wing American view that it should be exposed.

My response in brief is that single payer works. A few points about health care in Canada.

• There is no anxiety about physician and hospital bills.

• For the first time in many years I sat at a department of surgery meeting and heard that we are not filling the OR time! Why? Because the government of Ontario has been so effective at attacking wait times.

• There are no wait times for cardiac and cancer care in Ontario.

• No one has ever been denied care for smoking and the outcomes for health care are better in Canada
  than in the U.S.

• We are competing very successfully with the U.S. because of single payer health care.

• Our dollar is now worth more than the American dollar.

The only question is why profit and greed in the U.S.continue to trump compassion, efficiency and quality.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/canada.asp