A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Tink:
================
Hey frtzw, sounds like we got another dance going on, and someone got
your hot button. I'll probably set this one out, but I like to watch.
====================

Tink, it's not a hot button at all. It is simply disingenuous of Scott
to pop off with some one-off example and thereby try to discredit an
entire system.

It's hardly "one-off." It's pervasive and ubiquitous in every socialized
medicine system in existence because by its nature, socialized medicine
cannot provide effective on-demand health care to everyone.

And you know what, if the critique were coming from
someone in Australia, or Germany, or France or whereever we could lean
something about how to do things better, I wouldn't mind so much. But
what can we learn from the American system?

First, let's be clear: we tried the American system and rejected it.

Yeah, freedom and liberty are SO unnecessary...

it's not like Canada doesn't have experience with privatized medicine.
that's what we had before we went universal.

And that's what you'll have shortly, after your socialized system fails
completely. As it is, many Canadians are coming to the US to get immediate
medical care they can't get in Canada. I'll take expensive medical care I
can get on demand to cheap medical care I can't get when I need it. I'll
figure out how to pay for it later.


As to what we can learn; that's simple. America is good at providing
excellent care, quickly, if (and this is a huge IF), you can pay for
it.

Which makes it a good idea to stay healthy or save a lot of money against
future medical problems. Why should anyone else have to bail you out if you
don't use good judgment?


I don't need to know much more about the American system than what
Frederick has outlined. That's enough to convince me that it needs
fixing in a bad way. There's no way a decent, hard-working, family
should have to live with such stress.

Why not? Why should their health problems cause a financial burden for me?
Why should I have to pay for heart surgery for people who eat McDonalds till
they weigh 450 pounds and clog up their arteries with plaque? Isn't that
THEIR problem? Shouldn't THEY be responsible for their own health, and for
paying for fixing what's wrong with them? What justifies imposing that
financial burden on other people?

What a stupid way to treat the
people who make your system work and make your country great. It's
dehumanizing. It's STUPID!

It's life. Sometimes you die. So what? Big deal. There'll be another one
just like you along in a few years. Death comes to us all, eventually. Get
used to it.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser