in article , Scott Weiser at
wrote on 3/27/05 7:46 PM:

A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Scott, commenting on many (most) in Canada getting immediate ca
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Yup. While at the same time, teenagers who need knee surgery have to
wait
three years.
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Notwithstanding the protestations of rick, several of us from Canada
have commented on, and admitted, that one of the consequences of our
style of healthcare is that, for some procedures, there are waiting
lists. That's a fact. But it's a price we're willing to pay,

I doubt you speak for everyone, or even a substantial number of Canadians,
given how much dissatisfaction there is in Canada now and how many calls for
privatization and reform.

There is a much stronger desire for universal health care in the US than the
dismantling of universal health care in Canada.

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4798058/

Why can't the richest nation in the world provide health-care coverage to
all its people? It's the question that hangs over all debates about medical
care and insurance -- particularly in an election year when jobs -- and the
employer-based health system that ties insurance to work -- are a key voter
concern.

The answer: It's not that Americans don't want to cover the 41 million
uninsured . And the cost, pegged by Kaiser Commission on Medicaid & the
Uninsured at less than $69 billion a year, isn't insurmountable, adding just
6 percent to annual health spending.

It's just that no consensus exists -- in the public, among politicians, or
in the health industries -- about how best to get the job done. And because
the vast majority of voters have health insurance (85 percent of the
population is insured, but 92 percent of those who participated in the 2000
election were covered), political leaders have little incentive to overcome
that impasse.

That's not to say Americans don't wish that health care was available to
all. Some 62 percent support universal coverage, according to an October,
2003, Washington Post/ABC News Poll.