Month: August 2022
With socialized medicine, legalize euthanasia goes exactly as you’d expect
By Andrea Widburg
Canada has had socialized medicine since 1968. As of 2016, long wait times for care in Canada saw tens of thousands of them streaming across the border into America.* Also in 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia. Currently, euthanasia has become the sixth leading cause of death in Canada. Hmm. I wonder if there’s a connection.
It’s difficult to find statistics about the quality of medical care in countries with socialized medicine. A long time ago, Scott Atlas wrote a brilliant article on just that subject for Commentary Magazine entitled “The Worst Study Ever?” (Commentary claims it’s available online but the link, sadly, goes nowhere.) Atlas’s article examined the World Health Organization’s World Health Report 2000, which was basically a giant slam at the American healthcare system. I’m exaggerating only a little when I say America came in last behind countries like North Korea and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Leftists, of course, instantly announced that the WHO study practically mandated that we socialize our medical system so that we, too, could have the fine medicine available in the rest of the civilized world. Atlas, though, looked beyond the study’s headlines and discovered something interesting about the WHO’s analysis: It wasn’t interested in healthcare outcomes. Instead, if I recall correctly, 25% of the score WHO awarded to a nation’s healthcare system was based upon whether people had “access” to “medical care.” The fact that the treatment they received was terrible, the waits long, and the outcomes bad, especially compared to America, was irrelevant.
I believe Canada ranked well in that WHO study. In terms of outcomes, though, other metrics signal problems. In 2005, the Canadian Supreme Court held that wait times were so long that Canada’s law forbidding people to augment their socialized medicine with private medical insurance to offset those wait times violated Canadians’ human rights. That was still a problem just last year when the Fraser Institute found that it took almost half a year for patients to see a specialist after a referral. (Hat tip: Possum Reviews.)
Those wait times may help explain why euthanasia is now one of the leading causes of death in Canada:
Euthanasia is now a leading cause of death in Canada only a few years after being legalized.
[snip]
Now, any adult with a serious disease or a mental health reason can seek euthanasia, according to the AP. The policy is also creeping forward to encompass the mentally ill, poor, and soon children, with some experts saying the law is going too far.
[snip]
Other countries where euthanasia is legal have certain safeguards, such as prohibiting doctors from mentioning it as a treatment option for patients or requiring them to exhaust all other treatment options before turning to euthanasia as a last resort. Canada has no such guardrails, according to AP.
The broad eligibility has led to more than 10,000 Canadians being euthanized in the most recent year for which data is available, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the country, the AP reported.
Matthew Yglesias’s tweet sums up the human tragedy behind the Canadian system:
The AP article notes that Trudeau’s Canada is planning to make euthanasia even easier to obtain next year. (It’s a very sad article that never questions the wisdom of socialized medicine, which is behind all countries that have euthanasia.)
One of my friends also pointed out something interesting, which is that euthanasia is on the rise, even as the pushback against illegal opioids means that people with terminal illnesses or chronic pain are finding it harder to get the medicines they need to function. I knew a medical student back in the early 1990s and learned from him that one of the most important things students were taught was that a large part of care for terminally ill patients was pain relief.
Twenty-five later, I spoke with a California doctor whose specialty was caring for patients with chronic pain. He was furious that laws cracking down on opioids meant that he was unable to help his patients. Anyone who has experienced severe pain knows that, at a certain point, if there’s no relief in sight, death seems like a good option—and here’s Canada promising a legal death that is, ironically enough, without pain.
Over the decades, the free market has made extraordinary strides in the medical field. Where it is unencumbered by insurance (which drastically warps prices) or by government, prices drop dramatically. Just think of plastic surgery and vision correction surgery.
However, the more the government is involved, the worse medical care gets. The government makes no profit from you (and profit is an incentive to give good care in the private sector) and it doesn’t love you (and love is why families will bankrupt themselves to keep someone alive). As Canada demonstrates, you’re just a line item on a spreadsheet, and the numbers on the sheet look a whole lot better when you’re encouraged to die.
* “Crossing the Border for Care: Frustrated by long waits, some Canadians are heading to the U.S. for medical treatment.”
German media ignore the growing AfD elephant in the room
The current reporting in the German mainstream press is surprisingly calm if one looks at the current poll numbers of the various parties. If any loss of percentage points is otherwise celebrated when it concerns the AfD, there is now total silence from mainstream parties.
The current election polls for the Bundestag election see a strengthening of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). In some cases, the young opposition force reaches the same numbers as two-and-a-half years ago.
The YouGov research institute gave the AfD 14 percentage points in the August 12 survey, while Infratest dimap sees it at 13 percent. In their most recent surveys, INSA and Forschungsgruppe Wahlen each assumed 12 percentage points.
Real concerns are dismissed as coming from ‘extremist forces’
Where did this upswing come from? The noticeable, but also the still to be expected consequences of the Ukraine war seem to be casting their shadows. Voters are beginning to get restless which has always been the ideal breeding ground for a protest party. The feared crises in autumn and winter could bring further turmoil to Germany’s party political landscape, as the AfD’s poll numbers continue to rise.
The Thuringian Interior Minister Georg Maier has warned of massive protests in the east of Germany in view of inflation and the energy crisis. Something is currently brewing that “worries me,” the SPD politician told German daily Die Welt. He feared that in the coming months “above all, extremist forces will mobilize in the streets. At least that’s what the findings of the security authorities indicate”.
Extremists and anti-vaxxers were often behind this mobilization, said Maier. “These forces want to scare the population even more.” However, they are not concerned with legitimate protests against higher energy prices, “but with creating contempt for the government and our democracy”. They want to convince people “that there must be another, authoritarian form of government in Germany”.
Lies, lies, lies
Reasons for the growing dissatisfaction with the Greens, SPD and old Merkel Atlanticists, are actually not hard to find – there are too many. They include disdain for the obvious lies of the SPD Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, the plain untruths of Greens Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (who opposes the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, is an opponent of nuclear power and China and faked her research and academic credentials), as well as continued government support for illegal immigration and the corrupt and criminal leaders of Ukraine.
Indeed, the sheer number of misrepresentations and corrupt officials are hard to keep track of.
According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), led by Robert Habeck for example, “the German pension level is one of the highest in the world”. The BMWK claimed this manifest fakery on Twitter.
On the social media platform, users harshly criticized an interview with Habeck (who also serves as Vice Chancellor) in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that was distributed by the ministry.
In truth, pensioners in Germany only get 51 percent of their last salary. This is the result of a worldwide comparative OECD study. Accordingly, a retiree in Italy receives an average of 90 percent of the last wage, in Austria it is 89 percent and in Spain 83 percent. Even Brazil, India and China are far ahead of Germany. The average for all countries is 12 points higher, at 63 percent.
According to official information from the German pension insurance (DRV), the pension level in Germany is only 49,4 percent.
Ignoring evidence
“Mr. Habeck, you don’t seem to know the economic data, Germany has slipped a long way in international comparison, we have the worst pensions, schools and infrastructure are ailing and debt is increasing,” Renate Apfelthaler tweeted. The Ministry then countered: “That is not true. The German economy is stable, the German pension level is one of the highest in the world and German debt is comparatively lower.”
Twitter users again objected. Some spoke of “fake news”, others forwarded the OECD table, and one wrote: “If that is really the belief and ‘knowledge’ of the ministry, then I am really panicking now.”
The Habeck Ministry did not delete the tweet with the obvious false claim. Even three days after it was distributed, they simply persisted in ignoring the evidence.
More taxes
The Economics Ministry sees the new gas tax at 2,419 euro cents per kilowatt hour as a result of the Ukraine war. This has drastically exacerbated the already tense situation on the energy markets.
The ordinance is to come into effect on October 1 and end on April 1, 2024. All gas consumers are to pay the surcharge in order to “stabilize” gas importers who have gotten into difficulties due to EU sanctions against Russia. It means a huge additional financial burden for consumers.
The newly planned gas tax will bail out twelve gas importers to the tune of 34 billion euros. This was announced by the Federal Ministry of Economics on Monday. The total sum relates to the allocation period until the beginning of April 2024 and corresponds to 90 percent of the expected replacement costs for this period.
https://freewestmedia.com/2022/08/16/german-media-ignore-the-growing-afd-elephant-in-the-room/
Defining “Woman” CONFUSES Women?!
Germany’s Antifa Interior Minister threatens public for ‘liking’ the wrong social media posts
Pakistan: Politician offers $20,000,000 for Geert Wilders’ head
To celebrate International Youth Day, the European Parliament spotlighted a veiled young French woman and the European Commission included a photo of the Islamists belonging to FEMYSO in its video
Tom Daley BLAMES Britain on Other Countries’ Homophobia?!
Climate zealots ‘genuinely think’ they are saving the planet
‘Ireland Is Full’ – Govt Decision to Spend €1 Billion on Migrants Branded ‘Outrageous’
The Irish government’s decision to spend around €1 billion on migrants in 2022 is “outrageous”, a populist leader within the country has said.
The Irish government’s decision to spend around €1 billion (~£844 million/$1.02 billion) on migrants ostensibly from Ukraine has been slammed as “outrageous” and “wrong-headed” by a populist leader, who described the small island nation as no longer having anywhere to house new arrivals.
Despite being one of the EU countries furthest away from Ukraine, Ireland has taken in a huge swathe of refugees allegedly from the Eastern European country, with the country ranking third overall in the number of migrants per capita received by the EU, falling behind Poland and Latvia, near neighbours of Ukraine and Russia.
According to a report by The Times, politicians in Ireland have now confirmed that the country is likely to spend around €1 billion on migrants said to be from Ukraine alone, with a further undisclosed figure also to be spent on a sudden surge of definitively non-Ukrainian migrants this year.
For context, according to official government statistics, Ireland’s revenue service collected a gross €96.6 billion in 2021, suggesting that — if 2022’s tax haul remains similar to last year’s — Ireland may spend over 1 per cent of its gross tax haul on migrants this year while the general public struggles with record high rents and massive inflation.
“It’s an outrageous abuse of taxpayers’ money,” Irish Freedom Party president and veteran populist politician Hermann Kelly told Breitbart Europe.
“As demand for housing and rents increase the government sends out search parties for more migrants,” he continued. “It’s wrong-headed madness. Ireland is full and we simply have nowhere to put these people.”
While the cost of taking in massive waves of migrants is set to be enormous for Ireland, the surge’s impact on housing in the country is likely to be an even greater concern for many in the country.
In particular, questions are now swirling as to where migrants currently residing in university accommodation could possibly be housed when students return next month, with the state rapidly running out of both public and private accommodation for both migrants and its own citizens.
Around 3,000 alleged refugees reportedly have been told that they must vacate their university accommodation by the end of the month, though Kelly told Breitbart Europe that there “will be uproar” if college students end up returning “in September to find their apartment has been allocated to ‘Ukrainian migrants’.”
All the while, the number of homeless people in Ireland continues to climb amid the country’s crippling housing crisis, with Ireland’s state-owned broadcaster reporting last month that figures are now nearing the previous all-time high, having reached 10,492 in June.
“We have to look after our own homeless first,” Kelly said, emphasising again to Breitbart Europe that “Ireland is full.”