Comments Posted By Your Canadian sister
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GOP UNVEILS HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN
Hey Rick, I saw your link on Facebook and thought I'd comment since this has always been a real world issue for my family...This plan would offer some assistance and financial respite to the millions upon millions of underinsured Americans. Yet the benefit to the uninsured is way way too low for a family--$5700 buys about 4-5 months of high deductible, high co-pay insurance. I'm not sure why Americans are convinced that some type of government insurance limits choice and violates one of the inalienable rights of being an American. Since moving to Canada I've experienced unparalleled choice, access, and quality in medical and behavioral health care. Much better choice and access than we ever had in the US even with our Teamster insurance. The emphasis on preventative medicine is also much greater here. It wasn't until we moved here that your nephew finally received appropriate diagnosis and treatment for his asthma. We don't worry about the cost of a nighttime trip to the emergency room during an asthma attack. It's far from a perfect system, but ask even the most right-wing Canadian (that's kind of like a McCain Republican I think) and they wouldn't want to revert to a private system.
The problem here is one of scale, I think. Canada has fewer residents than California. A similar point could be made of European countries (who seem to have bigger problems than Canada in maintaining an adequate national health care system) whose populations are from 3 to 10 times smaller than the US.
A better template to examine would be Russia. Their state run system is so bad that people barter with doctors for examinations and treatments.
I'm very glad you like your health care system in Canada and that it is performing as advertised. I'm just not sure Obamacare would do the same here. You might note that I say the family stipend offered in the GOP plan is too low and that the temptation for insurance companies to game the system at the state level exchanges means that there would have to be close federal oversight to prevent price fixing and other dodges. The market won't cure all that is wrong with the health care crisis in America. But some of the solutions offered by the GOP are a damn sight better than the top down mandated solutions offered by Obama.
ed.
Comment Posted By Your Canadian sister On 20.05.2009 @ 20:17
