Hillary Clinton was a true pioneer back in ‘93 and had sent a team of researchers to Ottawa to study the superior Canadian healthcare system. They spend 8% of Canada’s GNp on healthcare vs 17.5 of U.S.
Infant mortality rates are far above the American standard beside Albania(!) and women’s preventive medicine is preached and practiced. No Canadian ever goes to bed thinking they will go bankrupt if they can’t pay their medical bills! 62% of American bankruptcies are result of inability to pay medical bills. Healthcare is a Human Right, not a bloddy privilege, Obummer! That’s the message he needs to hear, this timid Empty Suit full of words words words. Send Barack to Canada to see the difference. You don’t have to be a civil servant to have great care.
It’s incredible but guess who was voted as ‘The most Popular Canadian of All Time’ last year? A pop idol? Nope. A hockey idol like Gretzky? Nope.
The Winner was a dead politician, former leader of the third party (only way for people to get things done in government!) Tommy Douglas. He’s an icon for young and old and if any political jerk tries t mess around with this LifeSaving healtchcare for all people, he/she’d be kicked out of their job in a jiffy.
Canadians are incredulous upon discovering that 62% of American bankruptices are the result of people not being able to pay off their….medical bills!

My advice to Obummer is to…GET HILLARY’S ADVICE! And send some researchers to Canada and start XEROXING….or Barry’s without a job next year.

But I’ll say this. I’m happy with my private health coverage which I pay for myself. I consider it my responsibilty to do this and have been willing to do without other things to be able to fit the expense into my budget. I don’t want this to change and there are other people like me.

I feel those in need of help should be the priority, not a sweeping transformation that necessarily involves working and middle-class people like myself who are willing and able to pay for private care and don’t want to deal with any more red tape, delays, and layers of authorization when it comes to treatment.

You’re wrong — I’ve already educated myself when it comes to healthcare. The figures used for those considered uninsured aren’t as black and white as some people claim. Some are already eligible for Medicaid. Some are illegal aliens. Some are healthy young adults who’d rather spend money on things other than health insurance. Some are unemployed who, when employed again are insured again.

At a time when the Federal deficit is so high, it’s irresponsible to rush into a sweeping and costly reform of healthcare that may not meet the goal of reducing costs effectively and satisfactorily.

For the health care, get back with me in twenty or thirty years or when you are over fifty.

The government in every other industrial country on the planet does a better job in providing healthcare than what private industry does in the U.S. It is not even close.

Go do some research and educate yourself.

I think you are premature in your critism. You have no actual plan yet to critize

He is smartly and strategically holding his cards close to his vest to keep conservatives and interest groups guessing and make it more difficult for them to critize and lobby.

However, every day Obama and the adminstration is talking more and more about a strong public option.

Police and fire departmens are non-profit as is the military and the defense industry seems to be doing well financially, so don’t tell me the health care industry will collapse if a “public option” health insurance is offered.

According to the Kaiser Foundation, the U. S. spent $5,711 per capita on health costs in 2008. This was about double what the rest of the industrialized world spends. And yet, we’re not number one in health care. The CIA World Book of Facts reports that we’re 44th in infant mortality, behind Cuba and tied with Slovakia and Poland. We’re ranked 50th in life expectancy, just ahead of Albania and just behind Portugal.

Of course these are averages and they’re brought down by those without health insurance. Since they can’t afford preventive care like colonoscopies, they show up in emergency rooms after the disease has progressed and treatment is now more expensive. Of course, the rest of us pay for this through taxes for public hospitals.

Because of rising insurance costs, businesses are cutting back on health coverage for employees. Co-pays and deductibles are increased, but the premiums keep climbing. Our exporting businesses must compete with foreign companies whose employees are provided health care by their governments.

I pay $600 per month for health insurance and I have a high deductible. The eight largest health insurance companies reported $30 billion last year in “selling, general & administrative costs”. Not one dollar of this amount went to health care. Their overhead is 20-30%. Medicare’s overhead is 1-2%.

It’s time for public option insurance and if I pay anything less than $600 a month for it, I won’t care whether it’s called a tax or a premium.

According to their annual reports, the eight largest health insurance companies spent $30 billion last year on “selling, general & administrative expenses.” Not one dollar of that money went to health care.

The cost of health care in the U. S. is twice per capita than most of the industrialized world, yet according to the CIA World Book Of Facts,

Agreed Elise and lets not also forget that ‘healthy’ is a relative term that can change instantly.

What about the whole step outside and get hit by a bus saying. It’s true! You can be a healthy person one minute and then something tragic changes your life forever.

BTW, since when does being uninsured mean that medical care is always denied? Hospitals treat people every day who have no insurance. Sometimes those people qualify for Medicaid but haven’t applied for it, so the hospital does it on their behalf and the eligibility is retroactive.

It’s middle-class/working-class folks who don’t qualify for Medicaid who get stuck. I feel any reform should specifically address this and leave the rest alone, for now at least.

I watched Michael Moore’s Sicko recently and had to laugh when he seemed to imply the French health care system routinely sends ailing people to recuperate on the Riviera while on paid leave from their employers. The film seemed so slanted it achieved the opposite of its goal and turned me off to the idea of expanding the role of government into health care.

And like susan stated above, while I’ve felt something could and should be done about healthcare, I have doubts that a government of spendthrift, one-party rule will come up with the best compromise.

The CEA’s claim that there are “46 million uninsured Americans” is false because, according to the Census Bureau, 9.7 million of the approximately 46 million uninsured people in the United States are not American citizens. In other words, about 21 percent of the uninsured in this country are citizens of other nations who are living here.

According to “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States,” a Census Bureau report published in August 2008, there were 45.6 million persons in the United States who did not have health insurance in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. However, the report states that 9.7 million of these uninsured persons were not U.S. citizens.

Once the government takes of service and can spend any additional money its saves in health care, many people will watch older homes being knocked down. Obama has stated many times that he will ration health care to the elderly and the old home you want to preserve will fade away. Watch the movie Logan’s Run because this is what our future looks like. Obama also thinks we need more General practitioners not specialists. When you think about this position you realize his goal is only to help those who will recover in the future not the chronically or terminally ill.

But again I ask you the most important question is where is the LIBERTY and FREEDOM in this situation. Why are so many people happy with the government FORCING its citizens to engage in a certain type of behavior? Our founding fathers were wisely very wary of government and the idea that government is the solution to every problem we face, is an answer that has been tried and has failed through out history.