Hillarious

You may have heard opponents of universal single-payer healthcare grumble about waiting times in Canada and cite that when it comes to elective, non-life-threatening, medical procedures like hip replacement the U.S. beats Canada and their boogey-man socialist healthcare system.

Well, Paul Krugman decided to do a little checking into that defense and uncovered something truly hillarious.

"the large majority of hip replacements in the United States are paid for by, um, Medicare.

That’s right: the hip-replacement gap is actually a comparison of two government health insurance systems. American Medicare has shorter waits than Canadian Medicare (yes, that’s what they call their system) because it has more lavish funding — end of story. The alleged virtues of private insurance have nothing to do with it."

Source: Paul Krugman

If only U.S. media outlets could find it within their mission to tell a broader story by doing a little myth busting and analysis that went beyond cherry-picking he-said-she-said squabbles. Balance does not pit lies against truth, but opinion against opinion.

There is a reason you must tell the whole truth in a court of law. Sometimes telling a half-truth is fibbing.