Long Wait Times in Healthcare Will Be The New Normal Under Tim Walz's Single-Payer Plan

Press Release

Jeff Johnson was joined at a capitol press conference today by Dr. Lee Kurisko to discuss his experience working in the Canadian single-payer healthcare system and how moving Minnesota to this model will impact access to healthcare. Dr. Kurisko warned that such a system will cause long wait times for Minnesotans seeking healthcare due to the rationing of care inevitable in a government run system.

Dr. Kurisko served as Medical Director for Diagnostic Imaging at Thunder Bay Regional Hospital and said his patients waited seven months for elective CT scans and over a year for an MRI.

"Although I used to be a supporter of Canada's system of government health care, facing the reality of trying to deliver quality care in this system completely changed my views," said Dr. Kurisko. "It is basic economics that a single-payer system will be overrun with demand for care resulting in long wait times and eventually rationing of care."

"Minnesotans used to the best care in the world will not tolerate waiting over a year to get an MRI," said Johnson, the Republican candidate for governor. "Tim Walz's plans for healthcare sound good and feel good but they won't work."

Walz has repeatedly said he will bring a single-payer healthcare system to Minnesota. A complete government takeover of healthcare in Minnesota (single-payer) will force everyone off their current insurance plan, limit access, cause many families to lose their doctor and require a huge tax increase on all Minnesotans.

Jeff Johnson will bring down healthcare costs by increasing competition, giving families more choices to find a plan that fits their needs. And contrary to the deceptive ad campaign being run by Walz's allies, everyone with a pre-existing condition will have guaranteed, affordable coverage.

Dr. Kurisko graduated from the University of Ottawa Medical School in Ottawa, Canada in 1988. He worked in Canada, both as a Primary Care Physician and as a Specialist in Diagnostic Radiology, for a total of 13 years. Since 2002, Dr. Kurisko has been working in Minnesota as a Diagnostic Radiologist with Consulting Radiologists, Ltd.

"Single-payer plans were tried and failed in California and Vermont - we should learn from those experiences," added Johnson. "State government can't even figure out how to issue car tabs and Tim Walz wants to trust them with our entire healthcare system."

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