Sarah Palin went to Canada for health care? Much ado about Skagway
March 8, 2010 by William K. Wolfrum
Liberal blogs are abuzz today about Sarah Palin’s admission that her family crossed the border from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse in Canada to receive health care for her brother:
“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 remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.”
Now, while it’s easy to spot the political stupidity of her bringing up this story, there does need to be a non-knee-jerk response to it. Mainly, the fact that her family was in Skagway. In the 1960s.
I actually spent a summer working as a reporter for the Skagway News. In the summer, with cruise ships pouring in, the population of the Southeastern town explodes to about 2,000. But the fact is, year-round, the population of Skagway is in the neighborhood of 800. It’s not exactly a great place to spend your winters. Or to get health care for serious issues.
Skagway is a town with limited access, in or out. It’s also not a place where it’s likely they can handle severe burns. Maybe in 2010 they can, but it’s almost a certainty that they couldn’t in the 1960s. I’d be willing to wager that any major medical problem would end up being taken care of Whitehorse, which is by far the closest big city around.
Add to that the fact that Canada’s Universal Health Care program wasn’t truly in full effect until 1966*; it was Palin’s parents that made the journey; and they most likely paid for it.
So while mocking Palin is rightfully a national sport at this point, and the timing and content of her remark was politically stupid, it’s really a non-starter. And poor political discourse.
Update: While the “Getting free health care in Canada” story is still a non-starter, the Anchorage Daily News, among others, has noted that Palin originally told The Skagway News that her brother had been taken via ferry to Juneau.
Head to the crossposted version of this story at Dagblog, where you’ll see comments from the editor of The Skagway News on this story.
* Some confusion on this. Here’s the link to a time line of Canada’s health care system.
-WKW
Well, yeah, but poor discourse is all we have left now! Nobody cares about piddly little things like “facts” and “cause and effect”, all we care about is who can shout the loudest and longest (and with the biggest ad buy).
Now if you’ll excuse me, my download of the latest episode of Who Wants to Be Smarter Than a 5th Grader? — brought to you by Monsanto! — is ready to watch.
Bill: All I can say is that I sure hope this “pre-eminent librul satirist/golf blogger/dog blogger on the Internet” thing works out for you, cuz your bizarre infatuation with “reporting facts” instead of merely attacking your opponents in bumper-sticker-worthy prose is gonna make it really difficult for you to make a go of it as a political operative, pundit or talking head.
In other words, what Bob said …
Tell me about it. I’ve already gotten accused of being a right-wing Palin lover.
Luckily, I took some good pictures of my dogs today. That should put me over the top, come tomorrow.
Yes, federal funding WAS in place in the Yukon prior to 1966. Bad research.
I would like to focus a little more on the part about her being stupid. So, uhmm…that was a pretty stupid blunder there, huh? Boy, I bet if she said something like that in a campaign…man, I bet she wouldn’t get elected. Yup, that sure was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Stupid? You betcha.