Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has hit back against a flurry of misleading reports in the liberal media which suggested that he was a hypocrite for seeking medical treatment in a clinic based in Canada, which has a system of socialized universal health care, despite being an opponent of introducing such a system in the United States.
“Funny thing is people who have an agenda tried to attack me, said, ‘Oh you’re going to use socialized medicine,’” he told WAVE 3 News. “I’m actually choosing capitalistic medicine because they only take cash from foreigners.”
As Paul correctly notes, Canada’s socialized medicine is only open to Canadian nationals, and he is thus only seeking private treatment. Paul said that he chose this specific clinic because it is “world renowned” in that specific type of surgery, accepts cash-paying American patients and offers treatment at a “reasonable price”, giving the reporter a lesson on the benefits of markets in health care.
“Their price is about one half to one third of what your insurance would pay, so in some ways, insurance overpays for things in our country,” he added. “But since this takes primarily cash from foreigners, and from people who don’t have insurance, the prices have actually been bid down.”
