We are actually discussing whether we should all pay in $ and in reduced care for a minority of people not to suffer financial impact. Some very important corollaries are being ignored: the incredible financial challenges to hospitals to provide free care to illegal immigrants, the coming inability of govt. programs such as Medicare to keep their promises, tort reform, the constitutionality of the proposals, etc.

Going bankrupt is not fun, but it was designed for financial disasters. I know two pertinent things: as I age, I am increasingly likely to need health care; and that life is not fair and can’t be made otherwise by laws. Thus, I pay for health insurance, sometimes pay for services the insurance does not cover, and don’t expect anybody else to pay if a disastrously expensive health disaster befalls me.

The whole premise of the thing is deceptive, to say the least.

At least, with the evolution of the debate from “health care” to “health insurance”, we are finally edging closer to being willing — however reluctantly — to acknowledge that fact.

Oh, and by the way, Owen: life-expectancy figures are a questionable criterion for comparing the medical-care systems of various countries, since there are many other factors in determining life expectancy (violent crime rates, to offer one example), not all of which can be directly correlated to “health care”. If you want to compare the efficacy of a country’s “health care” system, look at the survival rates for various diseases: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, even AIDS; i.e., areas in which the quality and delivery efficiency of medical treatment has a direct bearing. You’ll find that the United States is right near the top.

Yet here I have a problem you may be able to help me to decipher: in which of those important papers mister Obama did address/ anticipated this missiles shieled over Europe matter? Was it in the thesis:
1) “North-South Post-Colonial Relationships”,
2) “USA-Soviet Nuclear Disarmament Issues”,
3) Both of them,
4) A third one, destroyed by that notorious liar, congressman Joe Wilson;
5) “You are a racist!” – current paper published by mister Carter,
6) I Won, And Now Get Lost -

In case you have a better insight in this matter, insight which would further add to mister Obama’s towering credibility, please don’t hesitate to advise.
Confused in Los Angeles -

Canada’s health care costs who half as much? I used to be married to a Canadian woman who continually bragged about her “free” health care. I tried to convince her that her free health care was actually paid for by the outrageous taxes she paid*, and even went as far as to suggest that, if she were to stop paying her taxes, her health care would go away, too. She laughed.

*Before we were married, when she was still living in Calgary and I in New York, we made about the same face-value salary, but she paid more than half of hers to Revenue Canada (except one year when she got a big year-end bonus: they took half of that before she saw it, and half of what was left the next year at tax time, for a whopping 75%); I paid about 28% of mine to the IRS.

After we were married, and she’d been living in New York for some time, we flew up to AB to visit her family. While we were there, she took sick and called the doctor she’d been seeing in Calgary for many years: the receptionist told her she was not eligible for Health Canada any more, and suggested she check with Revenue Canada to make sure her taxes were up-to-date…

I wont bother with your second point, as that’s already been adequately addressed by other commenters.

Conclusion: Your points are non-starters. Thanks for sharing.

Doctor: “The bad news is, you need your heart bypassed.”

Patient: “Oh no!”

Doctor: “The good news is, we can do it . . . in a year or so.”

Patient: “Oh goodie!”

Doctor: “The bad news is, you’ll probably be dead from a massive coronary in a month. Here’s a bottle of aspirin. Good luck.”

Patient: “I’m going to New York! Bye!”

They have the same amount of credibility as Adolf Hitler, if he were to show up at a pro-life conference.

We shouldn’t trust them, and we don’t.

Beck is gonna have a monumental need to keep a straight face and stop from laughing hysterically as Obama lies to America on his show.

Monday, 5:00pm EDT

If the rumor is true, this is infinitely MUST-SEE-TV.