What changed in the last 10 years ? What changed since the 70s when you could basically expect free health insurance from your employer ? Answer those questions and maybe you have the answer to health care reform.

I’m sorry to see that some people err on the side of only the rich can afford health care and the rest of us should just go bankrupt.

Medical Bankruptcies are 65% of all bankruptcies and of those medical bankruptcies 75% of those people were paying for health insurance at some point.

You can’t just pick up the phone and go to a primary physician if you don’t have insurance or the money, and some times you have insurance but don’t have the deductable.

A 2006 article “More Americans Seeking Surgery Abroad” states that India has seen a 45% increase in patients seeking care in the previous two years.

Health Insurance profits have increased 1000% in the past decade as premiums have increased 300%.

Many of the uninsured are those who need it the most, the one’s with pre-existing conditions.

It most disturbs me to hear an objection to paying for undocumented people’s health care. As our declaration of independence states all men are crated equal, with unalienable rights…

Our immigration policy is inhumane and needs to change.

We provide medical care for enemy combatants on a battle field and you suggest we shouldn’t provide health care for those who pick your lettuce for half a living wage?

Insurance reform is what were talking about and is what we need. Insurance reform will bring in more paying people and will allow them to go to a primary physician for a real change rather than going to the emergency room when problems get worse and more expensive.

I am glad that anyone can go to an emergency room now and get critical care, it’s the least we can do as a civilized humane society, but not only are problems worse due to lack of prevention, one visit to the emergency room costs as much as a year of primary care.

I realize there are those who have an intolerant ideology about what government can and can not do. It is ironic how they can spend trillions on two wars against people who did not attack us but all of a sudden have principles when it comes to basic health care insurance.

Insurance is just a pool of people who gather together and put all their money in a pot so if one gets sick their bills are paid for – because anyone of us can come down with severe illness or injury.

The larger the pool the lower the costs. There is no reason for insurance corporations who skim profits and deny coverage to get inbetween Americans and their health care.

Republicans claim the government can’t do anything and point to Medicare going broke as an example. But Republicans were the one’s who have underfunded Medicare the past decade as they were handed a surplus from Bill Clinton when the Democrats passed a budget that gave us a surpluss in 1994 without any Republican votes.

750,000 Americans sought major health care abroad last year, while about 1.5 million are expected to do so this year, according to a Deloitte Center report.

The number of people heading abroad for “medical tourism” could jump tenfold in the next decade, to nearly 16 million Americans a year seeking cheaper knee and hip replacements, nose jobs, prostate and shoulder surgery, and even heart bypasses, according to a forecast by health care consultants at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/international/2008/November/Medical-Tourism-Ailing-in-Global-Financial-Downturn.html

What Barr and others fail to tell you the reader is that the costs are being borne by the Canadian Government, What he also fails to mention is that the surgeries that Canadians sought in America is not a symptom of failure in the Canadian System but a success in that it eliminates the need for the Canadian Govt to spend billions in hospitals and equipment.

In other word Barr the Govt of Canada did their buy/ build studies and found it cheaper to buy. In America we just throw money at problems without thought. The Canadian Govt did otherwise. Why build it when we can buy it cheaper?

“some 17,500 Canadian have come to the U.S. to receive health care”
so 17500 out of 33,212,696 (July 2008 est.) Canadians came to the US to receive hearth care. Yes, assuming your number doesn’t include some of the same Canadians multiple times for multiple visits, 1 out of every 1897.86 Canadian Citizens has come here for health care – yes 0.05% of all Canadians… real significant statistic Bob. [/sarcasm]

I could go on with WHO statistics or mention non-profit medical operations(intended for 3rd world countries) operating here, but I’m sure other comments have covered it. Maybe, I could mention various advanced procedures like hand transplantation etc which where first successfully pioneered and performed in countries with “socialized health care” rather than our own. That’s all the tip of the iceberg.

Regarding wait times – Canada’s system is single payer, not truly socialized like in the UK. This means that the doctors are not Government employees. If you walk in with cash, I’m sure you walk out having had your health attended too. That sounds alot more like our own system, no?

“During that same period, how many Americans have traveled north to obtain health care in Canada because they couldn’t get it here in the States?”

None – because to receive that heath care in Canada, you need an ID card that shows you are eligible. I’m sure tons of Americans(like myself) WOULD go there for that… if they could. But, Americans wouldn’t have ID cards for a Canadian health care system, would they? Note how that also excludes illegal immigrants etc from their system – and also note that they don’t have the illegal immigrant problem we do. (hint)(hint)

I like you Mr. Barr, and I hope you will end up our president some day, but that talking point you made is based on ignorance, and this “article” is worth about as much as non-alcoholic beer at a frat party.

If Canada’s system was SO BAD, then explain why they visit the doctor far more often than we do (hence the wait times for less critical operations), live longer, and somehow still spend MUCH LESS of their GDP on healthcare?

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t actually endore “Obamacare” specifically. It fails on many fronts – but it is blissfully ignorant to pretend that we need anything short of major health care reform in this nation.

She IS very happy with her OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan), but she also has never felt she had the option to easily change doctors or get a second opinion.