Message: 6 Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 19:35:50 -0500 From: "Alan Evil" <alanevil@bellsouth.net> Subject: [Orb] OT request To: <fsollist@yage.net>, "orblist" <orb@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <000701c4d999$34c70b60$7babd244@legba> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Could I get all you people that live in countries with free healthcare to send me a note about your impressions of free public health? What is the worst thing about it? What is your worst experience with it? And vice versa. I need some quotes to blindside some conservatives with.
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www.psychicreform.com
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"Be who you are... not what's cool." --Chef.
There is no such thing as "free healthcare" as somebody pays for it one way or another. You mean socialized healthcare. Here is a published letter I found from a Canadian regarding the subject. Moore and Canadian health care A letter from a listener I'm writing to you about the Michael Moore interview on the Phil Donahue show. I would like to clarify a few things about what he had to say regarding the Canadian health care system. I grew up in Canada, and have been a recipient of the Canadian socialized health care system up until I left the socialist country (it is a socialist country) to come and live here in a free market society (unless Hillary becomes President) My seventy years old mother, who still lives in Canada, had surgery on October 18th 2002. She had been on a waiting list since May of 2000. Twice, she was called in the course of those 2 plus years, and told that within a few weeks she should expect a call from the hospital to come in to get her surgery. But each time she was left hanging. On the third time (2 years and 4 months later), she was finally admitted to the hospital. Because of her advanced age she had taken a private supplemental insurance to cover for a private room, and other things that aren't covered by the Canadian health care system (they don't cover everything). When they called her to come in she's put a request for a private room, and told the hospital that she would pay for it and have her insurance reimburse her later. They told her that it wouldn't be a problem. That's until she showed up at the hospital, and was put in a room with another patient A MAN. When she told the nurse that she had requested a private room, the nurse told her; " you should feel lucky you could have been put in a room with 3 other patients" my Mom hesitated for a moment then the nurse told her; " if you don't like it there are 200 people on the waiting list, they'd be happy to take your spot, but you'll have to wait another 2 years." What were her options? Going to a different hospital? She didn't have a choice, all hospitals are owned by the government, all nurses and doctors are hired by the government. My mother's experience is not a horror story, nor the exception, but the norm up there. People who think that socialized health care means we all have access to Cedar Sinai are being mislead. What it means is that we all have access to County USC. It also means that all hospitals will be reduced to county USC service and standards, including Cedar Sinai. In a socialist country doctors have to go and practice medicine wherever the government sees fit. Doctors who have refused assignments have been subpoenaed and brought to justice. Three doctors in the province of Quebec have pending cases, because they refused to do a double shift. Not only were they asked to do a double shift, they were ask to do it at a different hospital than the one they are based at. For people who think that socialized health care means FREE health care, I've got some news for you. It cost money, and you pay for it. First of all the income tax rates are much higher than what we pay here in the US, on top of it everybody has to pay a 15.5% sales tax whenever they shop for goods and services. That includes going to the restaurant, renting a car, renting a hotel rooms, getting your car fixed, getting your haircut, buying clothes, going to a baseball game etc. Beside the taxes on gasoline is through the roof. A gallon of gas cost about $3.00 (for people who don't know, Canada pays the same price for a barrel of oil as the US does, taxes makes the price of gas so high). Canadians have almost no disposable income at all compared to American people, because too much money goes to taxes. The other perk that comes with the Canadian health care system is cheap medicine. Sometime it is as much as 70% cheaper to buy medicine in Canada than it is in the US. The reason for it is explained by the fact that American people pay for it. We pay an extra 70% here in the US so that the Pharmaceutical companies can sell their products to Canadian for 70% less. In order words American people subsidize the cheap medicine for Canadians, otherwise Canadians would not have access to cheap medicine. We also do it with the European countries, because in Europe they won't pay more than a certain amount for a specific medicine, so the cost is passed on to the consumers in the US. How long can the system hold? That's a question the Canadian government asked itself a few years ago. Because the retired population is increasing rapidly due to the baby boomers, the Liberal Canadian government had to find a solution to keep the flow of income tax coming, so they found a very clever way to increase revenues. Let in more young immigrants so they can bring more revenue for the Federal government, and pay for the retired baby boomers. Not only that, at the moment they are talking about raising the goods and services tax to 16%. Are Canadians fed up with this? Some are. After 30 years of socialized health care, parties like the Canadian Alliance, and the Action Democratique du Quebec are becoming very popular. First item on their agenda, privatizing the health care system. If there was a provincial race today in Quebec The ADQ (Action Democratique du Quebec), would get between 60% and 70% of the vote in a three party race. I know they'll get my mother's vote. I know that here in the US we do have problems with our health care system, but it not going to be solved by having less choice, and by surrendering the power of choice to the government. When people like Hillary Clinton are telling American people that they have the solution to solve health care system, and it's to socialize it, I find it anti-American. America is about making your own choice. Maybe one day they'll tell us that we should all drive the same car, all wear the same clothes, all watch the same TV station. For once we should learn something from a foreign country. Socialism doesn't work. And for people who do not think that it's here at our doorstep beware. Socialism doesn't happen through a revolution or a coup. It creeps up on you little by little. The more the government gets involved in private enterprises, the more you become socialist. One day you wake up and it's too late, the bureaucrats control most of your money therefore most of your choices, most of your life. Only the well connected make it, because so much goes through the government that contracts are awarded to friends, and large contributors. That's why it's important to leave as much money as possible in the hands of individuals. Strangely enough, in a socialist country, the rich get richer. The highest average worth of billionaires in the world, is in Sweden. That should tell you something. Thanks for your time. Sincerely, Ben