"No More Traffic" Blog Proves Our Point For Us (Update: Ultra-Liberal Lawrence O'Donnell Admits Yukon Did Not Have Single-Payer Until 1972)

A liberal blog named "No More Mister Nice Blog" challenges Ben Smith's update that stated "[s]ocialized medicine apparently only kicked in in Yukon in 1972, post-Palin."

First of all, the only reason why I'm even aware that this blog exists is because of memeorandum. I didn't recognize that memeorandum also linked to liberal blogs that do not get any traffic. But why not give this chap named Steve M. some charity and visit his blog for one day as he unintentionally helps defuse the "hypocrisy" argument.

He claims that the following from the "Inventory to the Records of the Yukon Government, YRG 1, Series 12, Territorial Treasurer Records, 1951-1969" proves....something (emphasis added):

The Yukon Health Insurance Service (Y.H.I.S.) came into existence on July 1, 1961 to provide hospital insurance for all residents of the Yukon Territory...

Y.H.I.S. provided hospital insurance for Yukon residents without cost, as long as they had lived in Yukon for ninety days.

The phrases for which I have added emphasis prove the very point that destroys the "hypocrisy" charge. The source cited by this liberal blogger clearly states that the healthcare system that Yukon had in place prior to 1972 was available to Yukon residents. Governor Palin's family (the Heaths) were not Yukon residents, meaning that the Heaths could not have received any benefit from the hospital insurance plan described in the link as they were not Yukon residents.

I'll concede that the question over what different areas of Canada had in place in the 1960s is confusing but I'd like to thank toolboxes such as Steve M. that operate rarely visited liberal blogs for helping paint a clearer picture that Palin did not benefit from "socialized health care," a charge that the left has been making wildly this entire day. In fact, please visit his blog and leave him a comment thanking him for his assistance.

Update: Hot Air and Ace of Spades have more on this "story."

Update #2: Reason magazine notes (emphasis added):

Canada was not born with the single-payer system it currently has. In fact, the full-blown socialization of its medical sector was a long time coming and was not in anything like its current state in the 1960s. In the early '60s, Canada had passed laws pushing universal access to hospitals; in 1966, the Medical Care Act allowed each province to create universal coverage systems, which took years to fully implement. It was only in 1984 that the current system really came online in the Canada Health Act, which banned patient fees and billing by doctors in excess of what the government paid.

Update III by Doug: (H/T Josh Painter) Rob Port at SayAnythingBlog puts this manufactured story by the left in perspective:

Well, here’s the most immediate problem: Sarah Heath, who was to one day become Sarah Palin, was born in 1964 in Idaho. Her family moved to Skagway, Alaska while she was an infant. At the most, she would have been 6 years old when her brother was taken to Canada to get treated for his burned foot.

I don’t think the six-year-old Sarah was calling the shots on where her family got health care.

The other problem is that Skagway, Alaska is extremely remote. In the 1960’s in order to get from Skagway to a city with a hospital in America you’d have to drive to Haines (and) take a ferry down to Juneau. Not exactly the fastest way to travel in an emergency. On the other hand, you could drive on the Klondike highway to Whitehorse.

I know this because I’ve been on that Haines/Juneau ferry, and I’ve driven from Whitehorse to Skagway.

Now, if I had a little boy with a burned foot that needed medical attention I’d want the quickest route to care I could find. If a Canadian hospital was closest, so be it.

Finally, while I’m not entirely sure how Canada’s government-run health care system works, something tells me that US citizens don’t get free care. Meaning that even if the Heath family went to a Canadian hospital, they weren’t being subsidized by Canadian tax dollars.

More here.

Update #4: Steve M. responds with the following in an update:

[Conservatives 4 Palin] think[s] they have me dead to rights because (a) the Yukon health system wasn't fully socialized in the '60s and (b) the Palins were using it as U.S. citizens.

Steve, we've got you dead to rights. What you seem to concede with point (b) destroys the central thrust of your argument. Your argument is that Palin is a hypocrite because she benefitted from socialized healthcare as a 5-year old in Canada. As evidence, you cite the fact that Yukon had implemented a hospital insurance plan in 1961 to rebut the argument that Yukon had only implemented what we know now as socialized healthcare in 1972. However, the Palins could not have benefitted from the hospital insurance plan that you cite as evidence because they were not Yukon residents. The only people who could have received the benefits from the very hospital insurance plan you cite as evidence for your hypocrisy argument are Yukon residents.

Knowing that his argument has been punctured, Steve does what some liberals do and that is create a straw-man. He asks whether we are "the same people who think even a minimal amount of additional government intervention in the U.S. health care system will turn our hospitals and doctors' offices into hell on earth?" Nope. I cannot speak for all conservatives but I support the Emergency Medical and Active Labor Act that provides anyone needing emergency assistance access to hospitals. This type of legislation is reasonable in my opinion.

Update #5: Tonight on MSNBC's Countdown, the ultra-liberal Lawrence O'Donnell effectively concedes that the hypocrisy argument is bogus as Canada did not have single-payer implemented until 1972 (at around the 4:21 mark if you want to watch the video).

Update #6: Chuck Heath talks to the Associated Press about why the Palins went to Whitehorse when they were living in Skagway.