As a Canadian currently working in the US I can offer a different perspective. Health-care is expensive where ever you get it and no system is perfect. I think the decision people have to make is what are your priorities.

I would like to raise a few interesting statistics. American health-care is the most expensive per capita in the world and yet not everyone is covered. Why? Emergency health-care is provided to everyone though which is great, but who pays for this and how much? US tax payers do. The down side is that paying for emergency care but not basic care actually costs more – ER visits are nearly 10 times as expensive at primary care visits. So would you rather pay for health-care for the diabetic without insurance at the primary care level or the ER level. Sooner or later you will be paying. Not only is there an easy to see cost to ER visits but there is the social cost of having un-insured people go bankrupt due to health expenses – which again cost business and tax payers money. Finally there is the employment (or unemployment) cost of poor health. People who are sick don’t work. So they go on un-employment insurance or resort to crime or live of the system. The argument that a self pay system is cheaper for the insured individual is false. Sooner-or-later you are going to pay. There is an extreme circumstance where this is not true, where ER visits are not covered and people die in the streets, and school children are not vaccinated and there are polio outbreaks – this is what happens when people only pay for themselves – lots of good examples can be seen in Africa – I guess you could opt for that system,..

As a Canadian I think we believe that yes it is expensive to pay for heath-care out of taxes but in the long run it is in everyone’s best interests. As a result everyone is covered and treated the same, which does mean some waits but it is untrue that you can only be seen “in network”, in Canada there is no network, get treated where ever you want. The wait issue is true – the cost of universal health-care (or at least the sacrifice to keep costs down) is waiting. However, if you have a heart attack you will be treated just as fast as here – it is only non emergency services for which you have to wait – but not forever (and generally not a duration which affects your condition outcome – like waiting for chemo or something).

Finally a note on BPPV. It is a newish disease and sure not too many people know about it. But did you know you can treat it at home? There is a BPPV self treatment device called the DizzyFIX (http://www.dizzyfix.com) which guides you through the treatment maneuver (Epley maneuver) and is effective in nearly all people . You may like to look into it. This kind of innovation and putting health-care back into the hands of the people is a great way to keep costs down and reduce waiting times.

Canadian in the US

“a”(Toothy, Robust)”public health insurance option is more important than bipartisanship, and Democrats should pass health-care legislation that includes the option with 51 votes if necessary.”

“Democrats should have “no intention” of working with Republicans if it’s not the strongest possible legislation that could be passed with a simple majority.” (Howard Dean)

This is what WE THE PEOPLE gave the Democrats all that power to do for ALL of us.

You see, Dr. Dean knows that in medicine and healthcare there is only one acceptable standard. And that standard is the HIGHEST level of EXCELLENCE you can provide for everyone. Nothing less has ever been acceptable in caring for a precious human life.

And the White House is right too. “Good health care reform is essentially good economic policy.” (Christina Romer)

jacksmith — WORKING CLASS

Afraid of rationed care? It’s already rationed. Wake up! Does anyone really think Private Health Insurers are really all that great? Just wait till you are fighting with them over a cost they don’t feel the need to pay for. When you declare bankruptcy, tell me you’d rather stick with it.

Either the market can bear the costs or it can’t. I believe that costs will be contained somehow and there will be bureaucracy. We have to choose between a government bureaucaracy and a private, in many cases, for profit one. The government system will have the ultimate goal of treating us, and the private one will have the ultimate goal of maximizing profit, which means, in effect, not treating us. The private system will go on as they are now, either keeping the sickest people out altogether, restricting access to services, or paying so little for certain services that practitioners quit providing them. On the other hand, the government system will be subject to the political process. Pick your poison.

If that’s not enough then maybe you just like the idea that you can have something better than someone who is less fortunate financially.