I am generally not inclined to defend Sarah Palin, but in light of today's "shocking revelations" that she received Canadian health care as an infant, I feel a little defense is warranted. I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Yes she made the comments that socialized medicine leads to "death panels", but this does not represent a contradiction. First she had no choice where her parents took her for health care when she was 5 years old; secondly this was before we had socialized our health care system. This all happened before we introduced the "death panel" to Canadian health care.
I did look it up on MapQuest, and Palin's hometown of Skagway is almost exactly in the middle between Whitehorse and Juneau, though it is 3 hours and 38 minutes faster to travel to Whitehorse because you don't have to travel 86 miles by ferry. To Whitehorse by train would have been the fastest ticket to a major hospital, unless you could afford a float plane. If you are a parent and your child has a sprained ankle, what are you going to do? Her parents took her to the nearest hospital when she was a child, how is this "hypocritical"?
I do not support Sarah Palin for President, but I don't think she's evil. I thought her death panel comments were over the top and I would not have advised it, yet it did seem to shift public opinion away from Obamacare.
I suppose a float plane to Juneau would be the fastest, though you are about 100 times more likely to die in a float plane than on a train, even more so 50 years ago. Spending the extra money for a plane ticket wouldn't be beneficial if the pilot pulls a La Bamba.
ReplyDeleteCross-border medicine was not that uncommon in the time whereof Mrs Palin speaks. This was, after all, before Medicare. I know in B C, this occurred in both directions; orthodontists and the Shriners hospital were both in Spokane, but residents of northern Washington would often come across when the nearest hospital was in Canada.
ReplyDeleteIn Tulsequah in the 40's & 50's, pregnant women were sent to the U S to give birth (Juneau, I think). Fast forward to the late 1960's, when some of those babies received draft letters from the U S Army. Based on their place of birth, they were considered to be American.
Her opponents need to attack the ideas and not the person.
ReplyDeleteIceman ... I had found a nice article on this and was going to write on it a bit later, but you beat me to it. :} :} :}
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/bDkLhI
The family had a Railway Pass.
ReplyDeleteCarol MacNeil was satisfied enough to be a part of a snide smear of Palin.
ReplyDeleteThe CBC is willing to present a corner of the story, just enough to let their followers know that they are dutifully tracking with Palin`s detractors.
Ommissions of truths of the story are useful tools.
I should know by now that The Iceman is willing to tune in to that place, the CBC, so that we never have to again.
The care wasn't actually for her, it was for her brother.
ReplyDeleteAnd her father, Chuck Heath, told the AP that he paid for the care since he wasn't a Canadian citizen.
The whole story is a moot point.
But it does help to further bury the already half-drowned American media as any source for truth ...
Thank you for presenting this. Palin's enemies are seeking not to target actual problems with her, but rather simply to overwhelm, much as they did with the frivolous ethics complaints while she was governor of Alaska. I am a big supporter of her based on affirmative things I admire about her. However, even if that were not the case, the sheer level of the attacks are enough to me into a Palinista.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty regarding the Canadian issue but disagree with you on the "death panels" after all Obama did say that " Grandma should take a pain pill" refering to an illness instead of costly treatment.What do you call that ? Painless quick death?
ReplyDeleteI think the only NEWS about this is that when she plays in front of Canadians $arah says her brother hurt his leg and went to Whitehorse for medical attention and when she plays in front of an Alaskan audience she says her brother hurt his leg and went to Juneau for medical attention. Pandering and lying, maybe in $arah´s case it is NO NEWS at all.
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