Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he made the ultimate capitalist decision by choosing to go to Canada instead of the United States for hernia surgery.

News of the Kentucky Republican's surgery went viral this week after the Courier Journal reported about the planned outpatient operation at a privately administered hospital in Ontario.

The surgery is related to an injury Paul suffered in 2017, when his neighbor attacked him while Paul was mowing his lawn, leaving him with six broken ribs and a bruised lung.

Critics have called out Paul for supposed hypocrisy because the ophthalmologist-turned-politician has railed against universal health care and socialized medicine, and Canada's health care system is based on both. Paul has made it one of his primary talking points when trying to garner support for his association health care plans.

But Paul said he made the best free market decision available.

"I looked for a place that did primarily that type of surgery. A place that actually accepts Americans who pay cash," Paul said in an interview with Wave 3 News in Washington, D.C.. "It's a private hospital. The funny thing is, people had an agenda that wanted to attack me said, 'Oh, you're going to choose socialized medicine.' I'm actually choosing capitalistic medicine because they only take cash from foreigners."

Paul is getting surgery at Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Thornhill, Ontario.

In Canada, medical care is publicly funded and universally provided through the country's Provincial Ministry of Health, and everyone receives the same base level of care.

Background:Sen. Rand Paul is going to Canada for surgery

Shouldice Hernia Hospital is privately owned but isn't free and independent of Canada's health care system. It receives funding from the Ontario government and accepts the Ontario’s Hospital Insurance Plan.

The hospital also accepts patients like Paul, who do not fall under Canada's free health care system and instead pay cash for the procedure. Paul said he chose the Canadian hospital because it's the best at that procedure.

"We have some centers like this," Paul said. "Oklahoma has a center like this but doesn't specialize in the surgery I need. I chose (Shouldice) because they are good at it and actually the price is right."

Paul's surgery in Canada was detailed in a civil lawsuit filed by Paul against his neighbor, Rene Boucher. The procedure is estimated to cost anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000, according to court documents. Paul is suing for health care costs as well as punitive damages.

Boucher pleaded guilty in March to attacking Paul after they reached a breaking point over lawn maintenance.

Paul was mowing his yard on Nov. 3, 2017, in his gated neighborhood in Bowling Green, Kentucky, when Boucher ran downhill toward Paul — who was wearing headphones and only noticed Boucher at the last second — and tackled him. A medical expert said the tackle is comparable to a chest trauma that would be seen in a 25-mile-per-hour car.

"I went through horrendous pain," Paul told Wave 3 on Tuesday, adding that he had pneumonia twice and fluid build up in his lungs. "It's been a hard year all because of the violence of somebody. ... We should send a message to people that we shouldn't tolerate this kind of violence and there has to be some kind of punishment."