SkyhookJackson

It seems we hit a soft spot. And funny how some people get all hot about posts that are not even directed at them. Time for someone to cool down. Yike! Sorry if I stepped on any toes. I'm an American who wished I lived in Canada. Actually, maybe that will happen someday since my husband has dual citizenship.

But I did mention the obvious..why have millions of others with less income than you figured it out? I must be too dim - a hard admission to make to a Bush/Cheney supporter. Enlighten me. If I get sick are you telling me to ask for a cut rate at Dr. Kevorkian's?

I think the name of the poster should give you a clue as to where they are coming from. I believe their response is "tough luck." Some might call it social Dawinism but that would be against their creationism roots. I'm sorry to hear that in the position that you're in. It seems what is lacking is a little sympathy for you and millions of others. However, what we see is the blame game. Somehow you are responsible for your own bad habits, bad genes and bad luck. But don't you dare try to commit suicide or have someone assist you do it to spare your pain or others: That would be a sin. LOL - bingo! I wasn't going to mention the obvious in an attempt at civility.

The sign on the doctor's wall said, "Payment is due when services are rendered". Mama always paid in cash...they liked that. We never called it "health care"....and it is all about profit....not health care welfare. Now we have people with an entitlement mentality..as if they have a RIGHT to a triple organ transplant. You must be Donald Trump posting incognito - few people can foot the bill for a major medical procedure. What is your solution if people can't afford to pay cash and can't afford to purchase insurance? There's way too many of us to just put us on an iceberg and send us out to sea. I think a country is only as good as it treats its least well off. The United States is failing miserably on that point and not just as it relates to health care. College tuition is up 35% in 5 years, jobs have gone to China and it's a free-for-all at the southern border.

Out of curiousity, how much does insurnace cost you (if you actually purchased it)? The last time we got a quote it was $12,000 a year with a $5,000 deductible per person (2 people). Of that, no out patient services were covered and only 80% of in patient costs after the deductible is met. That's way out of reach for us, yet we're too well off to qualify for any government-sponsored program. What is very frustrating is that for all the years we had insurance, they never paid a dime on our behalf. They're thieves, pure and simple. Many people who have insurance get a rude awakening when they hit a major illness. The 80% kicks in and if the whole bill is in the hundreds of thousands, the "insured" person is on the hook for 20% of it. My husband works in a banking/real estate related field (also self-employed) and just this week he worked with people being foreclosed on for medical bills and other people refinancing their home because of illness. It's a terribly stressful way to live. Don't fall for it.

Hmmmm . . . since when is "no health care" a good thing? It's fine to nurse a cold, patch up a cut with butterfly bandaids and super glue, but if the old appendix goes you're in deep, deep trouble no matter how self reliant you are. I have yet to see a copy of "Surgery For Dummies." The problem with American-style health care can be summed up in 1 word: profit. The insurance companies are not philanthropic institutions, they're financial giants that generate megabucks for their investors. As Michael Moore has pointed out, that is their job . . . their fiduciary responsibility. The only way they can make huge profits is to take in large piles of cash while paying out much, much less. If it wasn't for the profit motive and the odd $125,000,000 million dollar CEO salaries (United Healthcare), access to health care might be available to everyone in the U.S. I really hope you Canadians have the good sense to tweak your system and improve it before taking a nose dive (some might say death dive) into "for profit" health care. By the way, I intended to mention in my first posting that I'm not a "welfare queen" or moocher of any sort. That's another stereotype offered up about the uninsured. I've worked since I was 16 and paid taxes every year. Up until 3 years ago I could afford health insurance, even though there was a huge deductible and it didn't cover any out patient, preventive procedures. Actually, the U.S. has gotten so screwed up in almost every way, I just learned yesterday I paid more in taxes last year - my worst in 2 decades - than Rupert Murdoch did and he just purchased the Wall Street Journal for 5 billion dollars. Sorry to be so long winded, but the health care issue drives me nuts.

I've been following this conversation and feel compelled to throw in my 2 cents. I am a 58 year old, uninsured American. I am uninsured because I am self-employed and do not own a gold mine. In the United States, aging and/or any kind of illness puts you in an elite class for the insurance companies. It's called "We Don't Want You." They jack up the premiums until you're forced to give up the policy. It's called "cream skimming." They happily take money from the young and healthy, then cut their chances of loss once you hit a certain age or file a claim. The 47 million uninsured number is, IMHO, low. I went to an auction preview one time and quizzed all the other antique dealers there about where they bought their health insurance. To a person, all were unable to afford insurance. Insured people (in this case the ones making health care policy and generally "dissing" universal care) always assume uninsured people SOMEHOW get care. That is untrue. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll tell you I'm darn lucky to be alive. Remember the poor woman in California who died in pain on an emergency room floor while staff looked on and the janitor cleaned up around her? She was uninsured. I could write books of stories of uninsured people, their suffering, their bankruptcies, their foreclosed homes. Michael Moore is my hero. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for focusing on people WITH insurance. Insured Americans are living in a fool's paradise to say the least. They only THINK they're covered. The point of my post is to let all Canadians know that the majority of Americans are envious of their health care system. The old meme of "waiting periods" doesn't ring true to us because we've waited, too. We're not only waiting, we're suffering. Just one question. Do Canadians find it necessary to hold bake sales and car washes to benefit people with medical bills? You can find at least one on any weekend in the area where I live. Buy a cake, pay for chemotherapy. Right.