IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

If you had followed this thread - and my responses - you would know that universal health care - first time ever - was introduced by Bismarck, in 1883.
(Though Bismarck was extending a system that already had emerged for several different occupational groups since medieval times in Germany.)

Oh, no! That's just ... horrible. I am shocked, SHOCKED! To think an incrementalist might be in the White House by 2009!

And you remind us of that periodically as well.

I however, overcame my legacy ! :wink:

Thanks, and I do think America a good place to live. Even Walter may well agree with that -- the point of this thread isn't to deny that. But even if I generally consider America a great place to live, that doesn't have to mean I agree with every political detail of it. And I don't.

It was a joke, Walter. Lighten up.

Yes.

That would be terrible, Thomas. If said incrementalist actually was honest and and open about her true beliefs, she would never have a chance to be elected, but anymore who knows, the people might elect anyone that can promise them more than anyone else can dream of. Hillary is now proposing giving away money to virtually anyone and everyone. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Found this in my E-Mail this AM.
This was sent from Canada to a friend in the States.
I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton
introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have
in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health
care up here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone
who lives with the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you
some facts about this great medical plan that we have in Canada.
First of all:
1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium
every month of $96. for Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great eh.
What they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health
care system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax
bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that
and I am not sure of
the exact amount goes directly to health care our #1 expense.
2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is
more like a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor
quick enough so he can tell you "yes indeed you are sick or you need an
operation" but now the challenge becomes getting treated or
operated on.
We have waiting lists out the ying yang some as much as 2
years down the road.
3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in
Canada is to prescribe drugs. Have a pain here is a drug to take- not
what is causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because
it is more important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour
for Government re-imbursement
4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.
5) Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in
the emergency room waiting for treatment.
6) Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and
it required that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had to
pay $125. for a splint because it is not covered under health care plus
we have to pay $60. for each visit for him to check it out each week.
7) Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart
blockage. Put on a waiting list . Died before he could get treatment.
8) Government allots so many operations per year. When that is
done no more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead
your case and embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.
9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more
they are increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never
get shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the
problem but it never goes away. But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but
they don't call it a tax anymore it is now a user fee.
10) A friend needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she is a smoker they willnot do it. Despite paying into the health care system all these years. My friend is 65 years old. Now there is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either
because they are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now,
what we want in Canada is a health care system for healthy people only.
That should reduce our health care costs.
11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.
12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze,
cigarettes, junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not
allowed by law to spend my money on getting an operation I need because
that would be jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a
hockey player or athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go
figure. Where else in the world can you spend money to kill
yourself but not allowed to spend money to get healthy.
13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at
tax payer expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and
pay no premiums.
14) Oh yeah, we now give free needles to drug users to try and
keep them healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your
house and stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into
the health care system have to pay for their needles because it is not
covered by the health care system.
I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms
in the states you will be hearing more and more about universal health
care down there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just
want to make sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and
have some food for thought and informed questions to ask when broached
with this subject.
Step wisely and don't make the same mistakes we have.

Au,

Please don't reprint junk, chain emails here.

Cycloptichorn

CYCLO

Health systems abroad

http://www.galen.org/healthabroad.asp?docID=1033


Canada's the wrong model for universal health care

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003592432_harrop28.html

Thank you for posting actual articles!

Cycloptichorn

Cyclo
I haven't spent much time on a2k of late. However, things never change. You remain as always a smart ass.

Better then the alternative, wouldn't you agree?

Cycloptichorn

there are certainly some things in the report that i can agree with - i recall that that was talked about on this thread earlier : namely PREVENTION !



and along comes brett skinner to tell in so many words that NOT ENOUGH operations are being performed in canada !




listening to our family physician - a well-trained and fairly young physician - operations are sometimes necessary but should NOT be the first line of treatment .
skinner certainly makes it sound as if doing more operations results in a healthier population .
as has been pointed out more than once , the U.S. does NOT have the healthiest population (despite twice the number of operations , i might add) .
one might do well by looking at what the FRASER INSTITUTE stands for !
(ontario premier mike harris , a strong adherant to the principles of the fraser institute , was the driving force in almost crippling ontario's health system . his way of reducing health costs : cut back on medical school enrollment ! no wonder we now have a shortage of physicians !)
hbg



THE GALEN REPORT

Just 57% of private-industry workers in the United States have access to paid sick leave; 43% have no paid sick days. When these workers get sick, they are forced either to stay home, without pay and, in many cases, with some risk of losing their job, or else to go to work.

What this number masks, however, is how vastly unequal access to paid sick leave is for workers at different wage levels. Workers at the bottom of the wage scale, those making less than $7.38 an hour, are five times less likely to have sick days than workers at the top of the scale, those making greater than $29.47 an hour. As the figure reveals, only 16% of low-wage workers have access to paid sick days, versus 79% of high-wage workers.

In recent months, legislation has been introduced that would level the playing field and provide much needed paid leave for all workers who are sick. Such legislation?-as exists in other advanced economies?-would not only give workers an important benefit. Universal paid sick leave could increase productivity by strengthening worker loyalty, decreasing turnover, and cutting down on the number of sick employees who show up to work and infect others.

Elise Gould is a staff economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Her research focuses on labor-market trends and health-related economic issues.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2007/0907gould.html

Is that so shocking? Why would McDonalds give you paid sick days? Hourly employees generally do not get paid days. That's the nature of the pay scale. You get paid for the hours you work, not for the hours you sit at home. Along the same lines, I have paid sick days but I'm salary. However, these hourly people must be paid overtime for anything above 40 hrs. I get the same even though I put in 10%+ overtime each week.

Well, that's another difference between the USA and other countries (e.g. EU-countries and most ther Europian countries).

You get six weeks by law, "Continued Payment of Salary Act".

Afterwards a certain percentage from our health insurance company.
That's everyone who works for money.

McConnell Staffer Complicit in Frost Family Attack
Submitted by Bill Scher on October 11, 2007 - 2:13pm.
Wow. ThinkProgress breaks the story that Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, contacted traditional media reporters and encouraged them to write stories criticizing the Frost family.

He oh-so-innocently wrote: "Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there's more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems' radio response on SCHIP ... Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?"

Of course, he's the one that didn't do the vetting.

After additional reporting confirmed that the Frosts are a struggling working class family of six, the New York Times reported yesterday:

Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have backed off.

An aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts.

McConnell's team was unable to unite Senate Republicans to oppose children's health insurance, and now expansion of SCHIP has a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

Having failed to persuade the Republican Senate caucus on the merits, a top McConnell aide resorts to smears in hopes of sustaining Bush's veto in the House.

What did McConnell know and when did he know it?

--commonsense.org

Most full time professional hospital employees receive overtime pay , otherwise who'd work the holidays?