Universal Health Care

[sam h]

Universal health care is something every wealthy society should have. The question is how you achieve it. There has never been a country that has achieved universal or near universal coverage of its citizens that hasn't relied heavily upon the state to do so. There is no empirical evidence that a heavily market oriented system is going to ever be able to provide decent coverage to poor people. Health care is just too expensive. In many instances, these marekt-oriented systems run very inefficiently anyway. This is the case with the American system. We probably get less bang for our health care buck than any other advanced industrial country.

[QuadsOverQuads]

Well, I'd be in favor of it, but that would probably make me a communist or a Muslim or something ...


q/q

[vulturesrow]

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Universal health care is something every wealthy society should have.

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Agreed. It may very well be that we have the best system going. Anecdotally speaking, most of the Canadians I know hate their system. I find it somewhat repugnant that a nation as powerful as ours can let people miss out on needed health care because they cant afford. There are a lot of smart people in this country, on both sides of the political divided. Maybe if people would quite clinging so hard to their beloved ideologies we could come up with the right answer.

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Anecdotally speaking, most of the Canadians I know hate their system.

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Really? That's fascinating, because my anecdotal experience is quite the opposite. What are the demographics of the Canadians you know? The ones I know are generally lawyers or executives in the telecommunications industry.

[vulturesrow]

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Anecdotally speaking, most of the Canadians I know hate their system.

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Really? That's fascinating, because my anecdotal experience is quite the opposite. What are the demographics of the Canadians you know? The ones I know are generally lawyers or executives in the telecommunications industry.

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Honestly, not sure of their demographics, other than the fact that when I knew them all they were all around their mid 20s. I played rugby in the BC rugby union and thats where I met them. I was also very friendly with a French Canadian lass when I was a freshman in college and she probably had the strongest negative feelings in general toward the system. She as a uni student at the time, came from a solid middle class family.

As for anecdotes, I've been to an emergency room following a burst appendix here in the States and I've been to, well, where you go when you break your leg an hour north of Montreal. One of the places was awesome, the other was absolutely horrible. I think if my appendix had burst in Canada I would have died for certain.

[Myrtle]

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What does the report card of how it's working in Canada say?

[/ QUOTE ]The report card is very good, while costing a lot less than what America pays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadia...stems_compared

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.....thanks much for the link, Grey.

I must advise you, however, to be very careful with things like this, or you will be in danger of being branded as one of those radicals on this board who let facts get in the way of today's popular, revisionist horseshit opinions....

[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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Really? That's fascinating, because my anecdotal experience is quite the opposite. What are the demographics of the Canadians you know? The ones I know are generally lawyers or executives in the telecommunications industry.

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Honestly, not sure of their demographics, other than the fact that when I knew them all they were all around their mid 20s. I played rugby in the BC rugby union and thats where I met them. I was also very friendly with a French Canadian lass when I was a freshman in college and she probably had the strongest negative feelings in general toward the system. She as a uni student at the time, came from a solid middle class family.

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Interesting. Perhaps the people I've talked to are well off enough to supplement the Gov't provided care with private care when they want/need it. (I don't really know, it's not as if I've had any in-depth discussion about it). Thanks for the response.

[frizzfreeling]

The efficiency attack on social insurance is due to the fact that Medicare spending is growing at a rate twice that of our GDP. The cost of Medicare is ballooning and our ability to pay is drifting very very far apart from our willingness to pay


This has to do with the aging baby boomers, not efficiency in government programs. One way or another, you and I are going to pay for these peoples well-being for many years to come, and its going to get a lot worse than it is right now.

[theweatherman]

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As for anecdotes, I've been to an emergency room following a burst appendix here in the States and I've been to, well, where you go when you break your leg an hour north of Montreal. One of the places was awesome, the other was absolutely horrible. I think if my appendix had burst in Canada I would have died for certain.

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Ive always been told that if you are injuried in Cancada to make a run for the States (if you can of course) since the Canadian system is terrible. That said I am still a staunch supporter of universal health care in the US. I believe that it can work and that it is the moral obligation to provide all citizens with health care, not just the ones who can afford it.