More universal health care horror stories

The "good thing" about universal health care (according to it's advocates) is that it makes health care services available to everyone. What they don't tell you about (as I have said here many times) is the rationing that happens as a result. The much touted (by advocates of universal care) Canadian system gave us yet another lesson of the realities of universal health care.

"The Supreme Court will not hear arguments on the matter of who should pay for costly specialized treatment for autistic children in Ontario.
The court's decision Thursday halts the lengthy legal challenge of 28 Ontario families with autistic children who argued the province was discriminating against autistic children and should pay for intensive behavioural intervention therapy (IBI), as well as provide it in schools."

The families of these autistic children have said (does this sound familiar) that the treatments for the children would bankrupt them.

"The families have said the expensive treatment can eat up an entire year's salary and should not be a crippling financial burden. Private therapy costs between $30,000 and $80,000 a year for one child."

The Logical Husband has a brother who has Down's Syndrome and autism so these subjects always hit home in our household. His parents have spent a lot of money for both (they adopted another Down's Syndrome child after the first was born) in health care costs. It can indeed be a financial burden - but it is also a burden of love. They would do anything for them and it shows! It is not a dollars and cents issue, it is love, it is family. So they paid a little extra for insurance that would cover any treatments that might be needed.

However, these families do not have that choice. The same legislators who want government out of women's "health decisions" (aka abortion) feel that the government knows how to best treat the choices that women make in bringing children into the world. Does that make sense to you?