On Tuesday 12 February 2008 9:31:14 pm Craig White wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-02-12 at 21:12 -0700, Jason Hayes wrote:
<<snipped>>
> In any of the countries you mention above, you are not subject to
> exclusions for pre-existing conditions, large deductibles, medical
> decisions made by health insurance companies and of course, of all the
> countries mention, this is the only one where people routinely have to
> declare bankruptcy because of the phenomenal costs of health care, and
> this hits both insured and uninsured people.
You're missing the point here. If you die on a waiting list, it doesn't matter
how much you saved on your health care bills. I'd rather go and wash dishes
or deliver newspapers on top of my other job than have to wait eight months
before I could even set foot in an oncologist's office to start discussing my
cancer treatments.
> Then add to the equation the vast numbers of uninsured, the percentage
> of the nations GDP that is given to the health care industry (and
> rising) and the cost escalations for health care the last 5 years and
> the projected increases in health care costs over the next 5 years and
> it is clearly a system that is deeply broken.
I did not say that the American system was perfect; only that you should not
think instituting socialized health care will fix all the problems. It won't.
It will just create a ream of new problems, at the same time as it will
raises taxes, create long waiting lines, and decreases the quality of
service.
> For every 'horror story' that you list above, there are surely 10 horror
> stories in the American health care system...
Totally unsupported rhetoric, but let's pretend that you're correct. Having 10
US stories for every 1 Canadian story wouldn't be all that surprising since
Canada has 30 million people and the U.S. has over 300 million. There's 10x
as many stories in the U.S. period.
> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kaiser4may04,0,335770.story?track=t
>othtml
>
> Oh yeah, this is a great health care system we have here in the US...
>
> Craig
Wait lists for basic treatments in Canada are long and getting worse by the
day.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2753
That's true despite the fact that Canada spends more per capita on its health
care system than almost any other country on the planet.
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/newsrelease.aspx?nid=5036
The cost of the Canadian system is simply unsustainable. Something is going to
have to give. Right now it is access to doctors and quality of services.
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/newsrelease.aspx?nid=4561
Again, I have lived with and paid for both systems. Once the taxes and other
costs of the Canadian system are factored in, you're not saving a lot with
socialized care.
In the end, the American system is better. Period. Full stop. That doesn't
mean it's perfect, just better.
--
Jason Hayes
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