Americans have of course been conditioned for generations to believe that socialized medicine is first of all a disaster in its own terms, and secondly, the pathway to totalitarianism.

That's the biggest load of horse-shit that is pulled out by the right regarding Canada's health care system!

Read this whole article.

I hope the film gets released.

I'd like to escape from healthcare hell and believe me I wouldn't feel even a tad bit dazed or guilty!
It's out of control :wall:

Universal health care serves:

basic human rights for all

the taxpayers by being more efficient to administer

the future by making sure that health maintenance is strong and children grow up with ALL the things they need.


And guess what? If it's good enough for children and pregnant women, then it's good enough for the rest of us, don't you think?

Read here and write your legislators to support this bill

I'm looking forward to seeing it. I have heard that his take on the British system etc is a bit overly positive, but I don't think any of us in countries with socialised medicine would swap systems with the US, even though our systems aren't perfect.

I know for myself that I would have been in big trouble if I lived in the US. Caspar has a cleft palate and I have had a constant appointment scedule with plastic surgeons, ENT specialists, audiologists etc, and when he has surgery in a few months I will have a week long hospital stay for him and myself. And after that potentially a few years of speech therapy, follow-ups all through his adolescence and possibly further surgeries etc and I would be bankrupt. But, no, everything is covered and I only have to worry about taking care of him. Not taking care of the bills. Even his dental needs are covered so if he requires orthodontics when he's older, I won't have to worry about that either.

There are often complaints about delays and long waiting lists but eventually is better than nothing. When my sister needed spinal surgery, we didn't have to wait long, and with a really early surgery time both my sister and myself were covered for an overnight stay at a a nearby hotel and a taxi there in the morning.

To be honest, I just don't understand how any country can justify taking taxes and not providing healthcare. They seem to have plenty of money to subsidise industry, fight wars, pay ridiculous amounts to all kinds of contractors who would never realise the prices government pays in the private sector. It's just plain immoral. And relying on insurance companies to provide healthcare? That's just plain stupid.

I can't wait to see this movie.

First of all, no Health Care system can ever be perfect. There will always be some form of unbalance unless we enslave doctors as a social class, or develop holographic doctors like in Star Trek. What it all comes down to in the end is a political choice. What kind of society do we want to have. Apparently most of the world has chosen a system very different from that of the US. As a Canadian I'm totally biased here of course.

Nevertheless I have been growing fonder of a different kind of system, based on a radical idea that Milton Friedman came up with for schools (vouchers). He says that if we want people to have health care, instead of paying the doctors, we should be giving money to patients. The Netherlands has adopted a system based on that, and it has been working so far.

This idea could work for the US. Not only that but it could be the wave of the future, combing the normal market function with the best of single-payer (aka socialised) health care.

How to Cure Health Care by Milton Friedman.

bi:

To be honest, I just don't understand how any country can justify taking taxes and not providing healthcare. They seem to have plenty of money to subsidise industry, fight wars, pay ridiculous amounts to all kinds of contractors who would never realise the prices government pays in the private sector. It's just plain immoral. And relying on insurance companies to provide healthcare? That's just plain stupid.


It bothers me that people who tend to be liberal (libertarian liberal) place their trust in corporations (with no accountability) before they place trust in the government (some accountability). The idea of Free Market Health Care is atrocious. If that is what we truly want, then quit subsidizing some corporations over others. That isn't Free Market.

Which would we rather subsidize - pharmaceutical companies or patients? Almost anything is better than the current system, let's just not let it be called "socialized" and people will go for it, I swear!


Thanks, C6 for the article. I'll have to snoop into it.