BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Food for the thoughts of those who can think

HK

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:34:27 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:

"HK" wrote in message
m...
Debunking Canadian health care myths

By Rhonda Hackett
Denver Post

As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am
frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health
care system as the better one.

snip....

Yup...Although our system does have it's problems (long waits for elective
surgeries) just think what it could be like if we had the money the US
throws into its medical system.

That is the part they don't want to talk about. People expect the same
level of service but they deny how much it will cost. If you add
41,000,000 uninsured to the system, at the same level of service,
overall cost will go up by a proportional amount. If you assume a
significant number of these families can't afford $8,000-10,000 a
year, that will get passed along to those who can. Even Obama is out
there trying to tell people this is not going to be "free" medical
care, but they won't actually put real numbers to it.
When I run my 1040 against the Ontario tax code,(the easiest one to
find on the net) I do get an idea. It is a 35% tax hike for me.
The idea that creating a huge bureaucracy in the government is cheaper
than the private sector is simply not borne out with experience in
other sectors.
Medicare is going broke, collecting 2.9% of every wage dollar earned
in this country and only paying for care on about 12% of the
population.

A very significant percentage of medical charges in this country are the
result of corporate and insurance ripoffs and the paperwork shuffling
many practitioners have to go through to get reimbursement. And, of
course, there really is no competition between the major insurance
companies who offer or administer health insurance, because it is almost
impossible to compare one plan against another.