Column – Health care solutions abound elsewhere
March 22, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Alexandria Echo Press
Why is the United States so afraid of learning good things from other countries?
Take health care, for example. Many Americans have been bamboozled into thinking the United States has the best health-care system in the world while the rest of the countries have horrible socialistic systems where people if they’re not waiting in line are dying in droves because of vicious death panels. Meantime, millions and millions are wishing to come to America for the finest treatments. Continue Reading

If all those ‘other countries’ have such wonderful health care programs, please explain why a recent report from Great Britain cites a 16-week average wait time to see a physician. Why, too, do so many Canadians come to the United States for urgent care?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I guess the libs don’t want to be taken to task with facts, do they? Shoot the messenger!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Why was my item not posted?
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The item I tried to post earlier pertained to a film being shown on the Internet on the subject of thee Canadian health ‘care’ system.It is a real eye opener for those who really believe the legislation signed by the President two years ago could possibly be any better.
You can find a link on the Internet by searching for “Sick and Sicker.” It seems links posted here are forbidden.
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Try this:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8056/healthcare-system-ratings-us-great-britain-canada.aspx
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The studies you cite were taken 9 years ago. A lot has happened since then, and this film is far more current – 2011.
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…. and the people who were reporting their experiences and lack of timely care in the firm have since died. I guess that’s a sure fire way to shut up the opposition. Let them die.
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Area Voices will not let me post links, but others can. What’s with that?
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I guess the Website for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons – first founded in 1943 – does not pass muster with Area Voices??????
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vJfLBZfcJqQ
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Seriously?
You paid $495 for the rights to post this thing on HERE?
I am impressed. (just how, I won’t say)
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Please take the time to read and understand what a $495 fee actually covers. Posting a link from a public Web site is not chargeable.
Have you ever discussed this issue with a Canadian, bac? Do you know any Canadians – or family members of Canadians – who are stricken with a terminal disease and cannot get timely, life-saving care or who have died from being denied care? I DO!
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Yep.
My buddie’s parents moved to Quebec after retiring from teaching in Washinton state.
But of course, the fact they’re both teachers will draw flak from the ‘wise’ here.
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I don’t care about their pre-retirement vocations. That is not at all relevant. It is also irresponsible and mean-spirited of you to suggest others posting here would be against people because of their professions.
The question was “Do you know any Canadians – or family members of Canadians – who are stricken with a terminal disease and cannot get timely, life-saving care or who have died from being denied care?”
You flunk Debate 101
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It is really a shame that so much of President Obama’s voter base consists of freeloaders who want to hold tightly to government handouts and freebies and who have developed terminal reliance on feeding from the government teat.
I guess some free health care is better than none at all, and the working taxpayers and good people who have taken risks be darned.
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“Sabotaged by the Supreme Court,” that’s a good one, Dennis. I’d like to think it’s more a matter of the Supreme Court actually applying the Constitution to strike down this abomination. The very idea that the federal government can force its citizenry to buy a private good is appalling. I hope to God the Supreme Court holds this country back from the slippery slope we are about to go down.
We are not Switzerland or Taiwan; this is the United States of America. Remember it? Remember concepts like liberty?
I’d like to take you up on your prediction that people will clamor for a single payer system within ten years, because you have an awful lot of ground to make up. I’ve read that 80% of people are pretty happy with the system we have now. And the American public hasn’t been bamboozeled into any false notions about health care in America. This is the absolute best country for health care in the world–it’s not even debatable. It goes well beyond just the Mayo Clinic.
I suspect that some of the “experts” you rely on to make your case that the market is not the answer to the cost problem have their own dog in the fight. Let’s start by allowing people to buy their health insurance across state lines, if you’re really an advocate of people having a real choice in their health care. Get the federal government out of this and the problem will be well on its way to a solution.
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All men in Switzerland are required to be in the military from age 19 to 34 and officers to age 52. How many people in the US would like that? Face it Switzerland and Taiwan are very small countries with very little immigration to them either legal or illegal. If you are in Taiwan the odds of being from Somalia or Guatamala are pretty much zero. When there are 12 million people (or more) illegally in the country as in the US it is bound to have an impact on the health care system. When they don’t have insurance the cost of their health care is spread around to those who pay for their health care. There are ways of cutting health care costs without violating people’s Constitutional rights. Obamacare needs to be scrapped in it’s entirety and then congress needs to go back to work finding a workable cost cutting health care plan. This time Democrats and Republicans need to work together instead of the Democrats shutting Republicans out of any imput as happened with Obamacare.
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