The joy of slapping around anonymous commenters.

Back here, when I suggested that the new American Medicare prescription drug program was nothing you'd want to use as a good example for Canada, an anonymous commenter got a little uppity:

Let's see Canada overhaul its healthcare system and see if no major problems occur in the beginning.

Well, let's see if history is any indicator as to whether the implementation of a new healthcare system has to be as much of a total clusterfuck as this new U.S. system is, shall we? Let's check in on Kevin Drum, as he relates what happened when Medicare was first introduced in the U.S.:

So what happened on the day that this complex program was implemented? Thousands of senior citizens simply went to the hospital and got the health care they needed. "There were no crises that I remember," says Yale University political scientist Theodore Marmor, who worked in the office overseeing Medicare implementation and went on to write The Politics of Medicare, the program's definitive history. Newspaper accounts from the '60s back him up. Under the headline "medicare takes over easily," a Post writer described the program's first day as "a smooth transition, undramatic as a bed change." Three weeks later, the Times affirmed that "medicare's start has been smooth."

Well, golllleeee, Sergeant Carter. No clusterfuck. How about that? And follow the links there if you want to learn more about how this new plan is a complete rip-off.

Sorry, anonymous ... you were saying?