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[ivylore]

Obama savages McCain's on health care.

I'm just posting to this article because I have a question related to it. I think everyone knows my stance on this issue - that health care is a right, just like education. I also consider myself very lucky to live in Canada.

My question pertains to this comment.

McCain insists his health care plan would

Comments

[ivylore]

I don't understand why health care has to be made so complicated either - let's offer a tax credit and tax the benefits as income, etc, etc - let's just make it simpler for people to get covered and stay covered.

I once found a terrific article that analyzed the Canadian system in a straightforward fashion and addressed the issues brought up by its detractors in the US, but I can't find it now! Basically it said that no, the Canadian system isn't perfect, but overall it functions very well - especially in terms of costs and results and quality of life. Just like in the US, care varies from state to state and city to city.

When my father-in-law needed a TURP (prostrate surgery) last year, his wait was 3 1/2 weeks. The national average for other elective surgeries is about the same, and that's statistically far better than in the US. There is no wait for emergency surgery.

People in the US who favour a private health care system point to Canada and list off its flaws. Everyone in Canada looks to the US system and shudders in horror, and vows they never want to see that here.

People say crap about Canadians coming down here for procedures that they have to wait for up there, and "there's a reason" that they do that. Yeah, there's a reason--they are impatient, the procedures are not emergency procedures, they're loaded and they can.

Occasionally, people do go to the States with good reason, for things like knee and hip replacement surgeries - ultimately, quality of life is important. From time to time, I agree that the waits for these procedures are too long. Like I said above, the Cdn. system isn't perfect. There are issues our system needs to work on, and they're trying, but overall, it's very good and the majority of Canadians are happy with it.