Palin family used Canada’s state health system

Sarah Palin, opposed to US healthcare reform, admits to having used Canadian ‘NHS’ as a child

LAST UPDATED 4:17 PM, MARCH 9, 2010

Sarah Palin, the scourge of Barack Obama's plan to introduce a limited government healthcare scheme to America, has admitted to benefiting from Canada's state-funded health system when she was a child.

The Calgary Herald reports that in a speech in Calgary at the weekend, the former Alaskan governor told an audience who'd paid $200 each for the privilege: "My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not – this was in the 60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse... I think, isn't that kind of ironic now."

Some would say ironic: others might say hypocritical. Palin has been criticised for stoking up feelings in the healthcare reform debate by suggesting that rationing of resources in a future government-funded health system might result in bureaucrats deciding who was most deserving of treatment.

Palin dubbed these bureaucrats "death panels" – a charge dismissed by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the "lie of the year".

Palin has her defenders, who point out that Palin was just a child at the time and could hardly have made an informed decision as to whether to choose a Canadian hospital over an American one.

Her own father, Chuck Heath, told Associated Press that in the 1960s the nearest Alaskan town with a hospital, Juneau, was accessible only via an infrequent ferry or plane, whereas Whitehorse could be reached by train.

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Sarah's dad took his kids over to Whitehorse from Skagway twice for medical treatment. He had to pay, because he was not a Canadian citizen. But, to avoid being called a hypocrite 40 years later, little Sarah should have pedalled the family on her tricycle to Johns Hopkins or Cedars of Sinai, where all the rich media snobs hang out.

Posted by Denmark Welles at 1:08am on March 10, 2010

Speaking as a Canadian, it's frustrating to have our neighbors rattling their sabres and building their walls higher to protect themselves from who? The scary, polite, Tim Horton coffee drinking, hockey playing-TWO GOLD MEDALS!-and we even let our neighbors use our hospitals and clinics because we know how bad you have it back home. We don't understand what you are so afraid of when comes to adopting our sort of system. It is far better than yours and no one dies because they are poor. Health coverage here covers everyone for the basics and if you want more than that you have to pay out of pocket for extra insurance. The US has a system that is so money hungry and heartless that I'm certain a business degree is nearly a prerequisite for premed. I wish Obama could go ahead with his plan but there are too many greedy men with their hands out trying to stop him.

Posted by shelley KAPACH at 5:38am on March 10, 2010

To bad there was no socialized single payer health care in Canada at the time. The socialist didnt rear their ugly heads till later. Her family simply went there due to geography.

Posted by bricko at 8:05am on March 10, 2010

This is truly asinine. A person is a hypocrite if their family leaves itty-bitty(even today) Skagway and goes to Whitehorse, which is not just a couple of miles down the road, for medical care that they paid for? Big-Fing-Deal. She was a little girl, FGS, and her parents didn't want to fly the whole family to Juneau to get her some treatment!!! Look at a map FGS!!! How dumb can you media people and Democrats be? The Democrats are so scared of Palin they will use their media outlets to attack her for literally anything. The America People are going to get really p***ed off at this ruthless BS someday and Democrats will pay for it like they have in MA, NJ and VA.

Posted by MadJayhawk at 10:34pm on March 10, 2010

It has been reported here in the States that Palin's daughter and grandchild were or perhaps may still be enrolled in a Native Indian Tribal Health Care system payed for the the US Taxpayers...makes me want to return to England after my family left there in the 1700's. You folks are so fortunate to have Universal Health Care. It's estimated here in the US that 45,000 people die each year due to no insurance or being under insured. Lack of Health Care is the number 1 reason for Bankruptcies,both insured and uninsured.

Posted by David Kersey at 1:55pm on March 26, 2010