Ezra Klein notes the unimaginable difference between positions on health care taken by the major political parties in Canada during a heated election campaign versus the discourse on the same topic between Democrats and Republicans.
Ezra:
The Globe and Mail summarizes the positions Canada’s three major parties have adopted on the country’s heath-care system. The conservative position is, to an American, virtually unimaginable:
CONSERVATIVES:
Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party strongly support the Canada Health Act and its objective of a universally accessible, publicly funded health-care system in Canada. That is why he has increased funding for health care to record levels and why we will continue to increase funding for health care at 6 per cent a year to ensure that all Canadians have access to high-quality health care regardless of ability to pay.
LIBERALS:
A Liberal government passed the Canada Health Act, and we are firmly committed to enforcing the act in government. The reforms we will pursue in government do not require changes to the act itself, and can be accomplished through companion agreements arrived at through collaboration with the provinces and territories.
NDP:
New Democrats are committed to preserving public, not-for-profit universal health care. We would strengthen the act to bring out-of-hospital services such as home care and long-term care inside the public health-care system, helping to get costs under control.
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As Ezra points out, the reason Republicans have fought tooth and nail over the years to prevent any kind of universal health-care system from being passed or fully implemented is because in every country that has a universal system, it becomes hugely popular. In fact politically untouchable, as the official positions of the left, right, and center Canadian political parties attest.
The good parts of the PPACA that have already come into force like ending rescission and extending coverage to dependents to age 26 would already provoke a strong negative reaction if they were actually repealed.
I can't imagine what reaction Republicans thought they would get from voting to privatize the single-payer system the US already has - Medicare. Even with all the propaganda they've been throwing against it, making people doubt it will be there for them when they retire, trying to turn generations against one another over it, it doesn't make any difference. People know a good thing when they see it and won't accept being told they have to give it up.
Just ask Canadian Conservatives.