I am an American currently living in Canada. Over the years I have had the luxury of a great government run health care system. The reactions I am seeing from the republican party is sickening. I don’t see how you can find any negative in providing health care to your people. It’s absolutley embarrassing. And somehow the republicans try and make president Obama to be the bad guy. And all this socialist talk, are you kidding me? A little structure is exactly what we need, compared to no structure of the last administration. Do the republicans forget that the policies, or lack of, brought the U.S., world economy, to its knees, and yet, they don’t want change. Will you people please pull your head out of your @$$. For example, my dad almost cut his finger off. We went to the hospital with his health card and nothing more. We were seen in 15 minutes and his finger was saved. People, government run health care is not socialism, it’s structure to help the American people. Would you as a parent let your children run the streets free, at any hour,in any neighborhood? Probably not, because structure is necessary. Lastly, I pay twice as much in taxes in Canada than in the U.S. The top percent will be footing the bill so stop your whining if its not coming out of your income. You republicans are an embarrassment world-wide and you people make us look bad. The Obama administration is a breath of fresh air compared to the previous so-called leader. Bush didn’t keep us safe. We were attacked on 911 on his watch. We were not supposed to wage war in Iraq, it was Afghanistan remember? Therfore, you did not keep us safe, every American death in Iraq was the fault of the Bush administration. Bush/Cheney/Republicans, you didn’t keep us safe. Republicans, you are the PROBLEM.

The way the system works is the funding is done via taxes. We have the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) where almost everything is taxed (7.5%) and we have the GST (Federal Goods and Services Tax) where we pay 7%.

Everybody that has a card has the right to free health care. It’s great but as with everything that is Free, some people will abuse the system. If you have to go to the emergency for any reason, your case will be evaluated and don’t be surprised if you have to wait for 6-8-10 or even 12 hours to get treated. On the other hand it has created a very large shortage of doctors and nurses.

In my case, I live very close to the Province of Ontario and they pay their nurses $15- $20K/year more than what they get paid in the province of Quebec. So it’s tough to keep are nurses.

To conclude, everybody should have access to health care. It will create abuse but if limiters are in place to weed out the “abusers” it has a very good chance at succeeding.

That is ridiculous! Seniors have more health concerns than others and as a country, we should at least make provisions for them not to have to spend high monthly insurance premiums, and they should receive their prescriptions at a cut rate. My mother often called me telling me she was broke now because she didn’t have anymore money after she paid her bills.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with government sponsored health care. You see, living in Detroit all my life, we had easy access to Canada, by way of Windsor. So, that meant we could sneak across the border and purchase prescription medicines over the counter. But, you always had to worry about getting caught by the border police.

This is America, we shouldn’t have to do this.

It doesn’t matter how much money I make in this life, I will always, always help those who are less fortunate. If God blesses me enough to be wealthy as @Tycoon Blogger, then as scripture says: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Its not going to hurt one bit to give a little extra to make sure everyone can afford to go to the doctor.

Receiving adequate, competent medical care should be as natural as breathing in the United States.

However I’m not much aware of such things, I read about Health Care in India on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_India

But yeah I have been listening on tv news and reading all over the net about the latest US Health care debate, ….. Seems like Mr. Obama Thinks more about the people in the country than what other countries and people in those countries are doing.
I hope Obama’s health care initiatives prove for the betterment of the people in the US.

For once, I must disagree with you. I think the whole idea of government healthcare is a mistake. Despite its problems and they are signficant, the healthcare system in the US is pretty damn incredible provided you have money of course. When a Canadian’s dog can get an MRI faster than a human being where do they come? Have you read about the horror stories in Britain and the extent they attempt to ration care while witholding potentially life saving treatments? Here’s some interesting reading:

http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healthcare/socialized.html#britain
http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healthcare/socialized.html#canada

So you don’t misunderstand me, I think that a basic standard of care should be the right of every American provided they want it and Emergency Rooms and Clinics while helping out alot are not enough to solve the problem of the uninsured. What I object to in the Obama plan is a government option which directly competes with the private sector which I believe will result in a single payer system.

Even the system as proposed will bankrupt the country if the 23 trillion dollar bailout hasn’t done so already. My guess is to the extent that this sets us further on the road to becoming a poorer, more debt ridden, maybe even third world country, the effect will be to never achieve the lofty health care vision Obama promises. Care WILL be rationed. Your government will decide whether you live or die and you will be abdicating your rights as an individual to a centralized authority that doesn’t give a shit about you.

I’m sorry John, but America is different for a reason and if you change the premise of our society things will be different too. I agree Americans want stuff fast, but they won’t get it and this genie we will never be able to shove back in the bottle.

I want all American taken care of. If you want the government to step in directly and insure the uninsured have at it, but stay focused on the problem and don’t wreck the rest of the system while your at it.

In the Hippocratic Oath one of the fundamentally tenants which has underlined medicine practically forever is to do no harm. When it comes to health care reform, I wish it were part of the Government’s oath of office as well.

When the government takes over the health care industry, the Kaiser model will most likely be used in terms of how the benefits are structured.

We are very happy with Kaiser, but our family rarely gets sick. The coverage is provided thru my wife’s employer.

A few years ago, I was a teacher’s aide in a public school. I made very little income (we’re talking under $2,000 a month- working full time). Now, one would think, that working in a public school (which pretty much means that you’re working for the state), would entitle you to decent benefits. I was shocked to find that my health care cost nearly $700 per month for myself and my children (and that’s because I chose the low-end plan). I was dollars away from qualifying for federal assistance, yet my healthcare cost almost as much as I made monthly. What’s worse, my coverage was only 80%, and I still had deductibles/co-pays.

Should we have public health care? I think so. I learned (the hard way) early on that if you have children, healthcare is a MUST. I don’t know about every part of the country, but where I come from, Child Protective Services will crawl up your ass for just about anything (I know that they are this way NOW, because they got in so much trouble for not doing their jobs for so long), and not being able to take a sick child to a doctor or hospital immediately is the same as being negligent.

I now have a much higher-paying job, and don’t mind paying for my ridiculously overpriced healthcare, because I know that I can afford to take my kids to the doctor AND buy groceries (before, it was a tough choice that had to be made). If it means that I have to contribute to other people’s healthcare, well, then so be it. Don’t get me wrong- it’s easy to have the attitude that I scraped and pulled myself out of that hole through HARD work and major determination- people in that same situation could do the same… but I just hate thinking about those people who may be in the situation that I once was in…(do we eat, or do we take the baby to the doctor?). Some people never go to the doctor… but for some people, this is a basic need (imagine having a child with a chronic condition).

Now, as for Obama, his intentions and ability to do what’s best for the country… all we can do is wait and see (and remember that he is just a man – the world wasn’t created in one day, and all our nation’s problems can’t be solved in a day either).