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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (130057)	2/5/2010 12:43:37 AM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 541933

>>Instead or getting our panties in a twist about socialism. we really ought to be seeing how all the other 1st world countries hold down medical costs so much better than we do.<< My Canadian girlfriend and I have been talking about the healthcare issue a lot, naturally, and she has some very interesting things to say on the subject. I think her perspective, as a Canadian who has worked a lot in Canada, the UK, and the US, is useful. She told me that about a television series broadcast by the CBC, called The Greatest Canadian. The audience voted to determine who the most admired in Canadian history might be. The winner was Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian Medicare, which, of course, covers everyone in the country. Read about the series on Wikipedia, if you like. en.wikipedia.org My girlfriend works in the movie industry, and so moves from job to job frequently, as each film project is completed. She says that when she first started working in the US, she was amazed at how much time the other industry people she worked with spent thinking about health insurance. Sometimes they wouldn't be able to move to another state to do a job, because they and their families wouldn't be able to maintain their health coverage. Often, they would take or not take a job, depending on whether or not it would help them qualify for coverage under their union rules. She, of course, had always taken healthcare for granted, so these concerns were all new to her. She was accustomed to living in a country where people are free. They can move from one province to another anytime they wish to, without worrying about whether they'll be able to get insurance in their new location. Likewise, they are free to move from one job to another. When we were in Toronto, recently, we were driving through the city and she said, "Look at all these people. None of them are worried about what would happen to them if they had an accident, or became ill. None of them have to worry about going broke if they get sick. That's freedom. They all understand the social contract. All of them pay taxes in order to make sure that if they happen to be the unlucky ones who get cancer or something, they'll be able to get the care they need. If we're lucky, and end up paying the taxes without ever needing the care, we're happy. It's worth it to have the freedom from worry." She talks about how she never saw a bill when she got cancer. Money just wasn't one of her concerns at that time. And she got perfectly timely treatment, too. By the way, she has now been cancer free for more than ten years. Canada's national health insurance would be considered, by some, to be a Cadillac plan. It covers checkups. Nobody has to figure out whether they can afford to go to the doctor to have something checked out, so things like my girlfriend's cancer can be caught in their early stages, when they're less expensive to treat. Polls show that the vast majority of Canadians are very happy with their healthcare system, overall. The debate down here makes no sense to them whatsoever. Not even the most conservative politician in Canada would advocate dismantling their Medicare. Why? Because it works.