We demand UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE from the government, NOW!

The rich always do with their money whatever they want to do with it. I know Canadians go across the border and pay $ 25000 to $30000 and have procedures done because they don't accept the wait time. I have no objection to this. Canadian doctors are subsidized during their training by the Government. They know the situation with health care before they become doctors. If they are not satified with the money they bill the provincial health department they can always requalify in the US and move there. Some do, some stay some come back because they don't like your system. The point I am trying to make is that the richest country in the world has no adequate safety net for all its citizens as far as health care is concerned. Most European countries who are much poorer have this. According to this organization 43 Million people in the US have no health insurance. http://www.cbpp.org/9-30-03health.htm and this is a post from 2003. I know this is an anecdotal story but I would like to share it with you anyway. One of my friends broke her hand in Texas last year. She went to an ER in Austin. Her credit card was immediately charged with $ 500, even though she had taken out extra insurance for the US. She was told she had to go after the insurance company herself. What if her credit card would have been maxed out? I broke my shoulder last year. I went to a very busy ER in downtown Toronto. Did I have to wait? yes I waited two hours. Did it stink of urine and was it filthy? No. Busy? yes extremely busy. I got fixed up and was referred to the fracture clinic for follow up for the next three months. Because of my age the doctor there suggested I see my family physician to get a bone density test. I told him I did not have one. No problem, the fracture clinic would do the test. How much did all this cost me? $3.70 return fare on the subway for each visit. There are complaints about our system but for the most part there is gratitude.

"The point I am trying to make is that the richest country in the world has no adequate safety net for all its citizens as far as health care is concerned." This is a falsehood. It is against the law in the USA for an ER to refuse treatment to anyone. Illegal aliens without insurance get treated at a local hospitial and don't pay a cent. It is a severe problem as the hospital has to make up for this by charging more to others. Some hospitals in high illegal immigrant areas have even closed because of the legal requirement that they can not refuse treatment.

"Maybe his facts are not always correct but it reveals some shocking situations." If he can't keep his facts straight I will not pay him any attention whatsoever. The "shocking situations" are what is most likely to be an untruth. "Allowing doctors to set up private clinics would creatre a two tier system, one for the rich or well off, one for the poor. " Suppose a private system intially was for the rich primarily? So what? Why do you want to deny the rich the benefits of their money? Don't tell me it would be more fair. More fair in a supposedly free country means being able to spend your money as you see fit as long as it is not to harm people. Besides that, a private system would expand to include people who were less and less "rich" as time passes. Competition is always a good thing. A private system in competition with a public system would improve both. This is basic behavioral science.

Your example points out why both private and public health care should coexist. If there is competition both kinds will get better.

Those hospital managers, doctors, and nurses work for the government and are a part of the government. The government does run the "Health Service". You are rationalizing. I should make clear that I do not object to a government run health service being in existence. What I vehmentally object to is the government putting restrictions on the existence of private health care. This actually is what the advocates of government run health care want to happen in the USA. This will destroy the quality of health care in the USA if it happens. Without competition anything deteroiates. The ideal system would have both private and public facilities. The competition as the public choses which they prefer would raise the level of care in both systems. I simply predict the private sector will always beat the government system unless the government passes laws restricting the private. If both kinds of systems exist, everyone benefits and it does not matter who is right, you or me.

The free health care system in the UK from reports I have seen is that it is at best adequate. This is demonstrated by the fact that people like the Saudis have built private hospitals in your country for when their countrymen are in the UK. That privately run health care systems are better is why Saudis regularily travel to the Mayo clinic in the USA. My sister sees them when she goes there. What I am pointing out is that in the government run UK system, the Saudis and others have developed an alternative. In the US run private system, Saudis actually travel to the US just for the superior health care. There is a lesson to be learned here. You could have an excellant health care system as opposed to what you have. However, the choice is yours to make. I believe the Cuban system is way over hyped. The communists hardly ever tell the truth about anything. I actually did a study of communist propaganda when I was younger. The extent to which they resort to lies is appalling. There is no reason to believe anything the Cubans, or Michael Moore, have to say about anything, much less their health care. Too many people still risk their lives to flee Cuba for me to believe for a minute that their government runs anything well. In the USA the biggest problem with proposals for universal health care have been the attempts to ban private health care at the same time government health care is implamented. An analysis of that situation reveals the likely cause of this is the knowledge that if people have a choice, they will choose the privately run system.