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Originally Posted by NCB
Charltan, I started this thread primarily to continue the discussion that we had about the Canadian health care debacle.
The Canadian system is full of problems. Old people waiting in hospital rooms until a nursing home room opens up. People waiting 6 months for MRIs. People waiting (and dying) for life saving operations. People escaping Canadian healthcare to come to the US for much needed care. It ain't working for y'all up there. The system is in shambles and the only thing that Ottawa knows what to do is to throw more oney at it (classic liberal response, of course).
It seems to me that socialized medicine is only good for population control, not caring for people's healthcare needs
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NCB... I figured as much and would love to debate the Canadian healthcare system with you. That said, you started off with an article that, in my opinion, brings little to the debate other than to say that there are other ways to deliver healthcare... and the source is rather weak. If I were to post articles that spout economic "truths" from the International Socialist website I would expect them to be just as soundly mocked...
That said, we in Canada have a *very* strong tradition of equity and social saftey nets... Most Canadians will point to these traditions if you were to ask them what it means to be a Canadian (it wasn't all that surprising that in a recent television program to determine the Greatest Canadian, Tommy Douglas was chosen as the greatest Canadian by popular vote. Tommy Douglas, besides being Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather is best remembered as the man behind the creation of our public healthcare system).
Conversely the US has a strong tradition of Individualism... I don't think too many American would disagree with that statement.
The result is that our nations have chosen different paths.
The fact is, we spend less per capita on healthcare than the US, we are consitently in the top five of the best countries to live in in the world (as ranked by the UN) and have one of the healthiest nations on the planet as well.
I think we can agree upon the following... no system is perfect.
The US system has *many* problems. Please don't tell me it is a perfect system or that everyone is being serviced equally (I'll just have to go and look up the numbers).
The Canadian system has certain issues as well. I won't deny that. I don't think anyone would. That said, I can give you anecdote after anecdote of people like Janey who have had no problems whatsoever with the system (including myself).
I certainly agree that people shouldn't have to wait as long as they do for MRIs in some parts of the nation... but that doesn't mean we should trash the whole system.
Again, just to under score it, we spend less per capita than the US on healthcare and manage to deliver it effectively enough to have one of the healthiest populations on the planet.