No offence to Miss Cook, but having worked and been treated by Canadian (Ontario) healthcare, she’s missing the biggest part of the puzzle. Our doctors are running a supply-side cartel and are not graduating enough MD’s to fill the roles required given the demographic shift where baby boomers as they age require increasing care. Until that’s solved single-payer universal system or out-of-pocket system is moot. The other thing Heather fails to mention is the relative costs of each system. At present our system to cover everyone regardless of its warts, costs about 50% of what the United States pays on a per capita basis and in the USA, not everyone is covered ($3,165 vs $6,102). In addition, your private insurance costs are growing at upwards of 8%-9% per year, while our tax-funded system is growing at only about 4% per year. Compound that over a decade and the difference is going to be striking. But frankly that shouldn’t be the end comparison. Canada’s system does not equate to “the only way a universal system can get set-up”. Based on what I’ve read there are several European as well as the NZ and Aussie systems that appear better, although it must be remembered they are operating without the cartel-create doctor shortage we have. See attached patient-interviewed study for some interesting reading for those who are willing to look at numbers rather than make this decision based on ideology: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/1027_Davis_mirror_mirror_international_update_final.pdf One last thing, for those that do see Universal Coverage as some sort of political sin, why is it that no one complains about Medicare and in particular the Bush Pharma Plan? Both are 100% socialist systems that are cctually far more inclusive than what we have here (no province here includes prescriptions), so why shouldn’t they be banned in the United States as well? I’ll check in to answer any follow-up questions anyone has later….Cheers all. And a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all too.
