Well… Considering the Ontario Government has issued 300,000 more Health Cards than there are people in Ontario, I’m assuming that approximately 300,000 Americans have crossed the border to partake in our national pastime of dying while waiting for treatment.

Not every immigrant to Canada is American. Many come from all over the world, e.g. Asia, the Philipines, Eastern Europe, Africa. But you’re right all of the immigrants (and their entire families) get a Care Card whether they are working or not. Of course the taxes(income, GST, VAT etc.) in Canada are incredibly high to “cover” everyone.

Can anyone enlighten me on the motivation for government health care? It seems to me that the only entities to benefit are businesses who now pay most of the expense of health insurance. If the government (that’s us) picks up the tab for that, do businesses then pocket that savings or pass it on to consumers (ha, ha). And, if the government owns healthcare what happens to medical malpractice? Currently, the costs of malpractice insurance are huge. Will the docs no longer have to carry insurance? Can you sue the government if you have a malpractice case? The current administration seems to be trying to convince us that this is to benefit the ‘millions who don’t have healthcare’. Aren’t most of them covered by Medicare at the states’ cost?

mph on June 3, 2009 at 11:13 AM

Seems to me…

1) Insurance companies will go out of business since the government will provide universal insurance.
2) Government healthcare will be massively overrun with costs due to mismanagement (like everything else they touch).
3) Procedures will be restricted on non-productive (i.e. retired) individuals.
4) Companies still pay healthcare premiums… to the government.
5) Government will raise the costs for companies because of their mismanagement, and the fact they are the only provider, and because they can crush any companies that resist.
6) Costs will also be passed on to individuals through higher taxes (individual and/or corporate).
7) Government will take on the role of prosecuting malpractice to re-coop costs on expensive healthcare after complications.
8) Malpractice insurance will go up, causing many doctors to flee the system completely or provide “black-market” services (kind of how Canadians come to the US for procedures that their government drags their feet on).
9) Everyone suffers… except the government officials who now rule on high. For them, its good to be king.

Canadian pol: Help me help Obama impose CanadaCare on US

My wife works with a gal who emigrated from Canada. She liked the Canadian healthcare just fine until she moved to the United States, now she says she would never want to go back to the Canadian system.

where will WE go? Mexico?

Attila (Pillage Idiot) on June 3, 2009 at 1:34 PM

Steven McQueen (Peace Be Upon Him) did that and he died as a result.

Without the US health care system, such as the ability to take Canadian patients, and exports of technology and pharmaceuticals, Canada’s system would have collapsed years ago.

They’re still socialist liberal idiots that have not a single clue what freedom and personal responsibility means, nor do they put any value behind either.

Their brilliant scheme is simply to steal from anyone that has more financial resources than your average low to mid income individual, family, or employer, to fund socialist entitlement programs that make people so dependent on the government for their daily bread that they are forced to continue voting for the socialist liberal scum just to keep the bread train rolling.

Trouble is, of course, that it doesn’t, hasn’t, and never will work no matter what this stupid scheme is applied to. Worse yet, it appeals to so many lazy asses that think they can get a cheap or free ride at the expense of those evil rich that clearly didn’t work for their money and stole every dime from the pockets of everyone not rich, and it encourages those who are tired of working and breaking even to become one of these lazy government dependent sweaty ball sacks.

Only when things come full circle will people begin to take matters into their own hands again. The system the dumbass liberal socialists created has to crash completely without a bailout because it’s “too big to fail”. This time however, the sock puppet in chief is trying desperately to insure that the crash is so long term and the debt from rescuing this bizarre illogical scheme is so long term that the debt it causes will long outlast the systems crash, thereby guaranteeing a continuation of the socialist system until it can begin sucking the life out of it’s citizens again.

In short, sock puppet is trying to skip a part of the cycle, the part where people wake up and realize that communism is for communists, reject the whole ball of crap and rebuild the economy. Instead, we stay in the crap heap until the gubment can make us all loyal dependent voters.

Yay for mass stupidity.

What planet do these people live on?

DavidM on June 3, 2009 at 1:00 PM

Not planet reality, that’s for sure. Government-run health care will actually increase costs. These costs will be barriers to new R&D, and would ultimately drive healthcare businesses out of the US economy.

How many Americans have crossed the border into Canada seeking better health care?

That’s a tell.

fogw on June 3, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Well… Considering the Ontario Government has issued 300,000 more Health Cards than there are people in Ontario, I’m assuming that approximately 300,000 Americans have crossed the border to partake in our national pastime of dying while waiting for treatment.

So because coporations try to cut costs, that means the GOVERNMENT won’t? What planet do these people live on?

How many Americans have crossed the border into Canada seeking better health care?
That’s a tell.
fogw on June 3, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Actually I know of two or three. The funerals were very touching. *sniff*

Canadian pol: Help me help Obama impose CanadaCare on US

Natasha Richardson was unavailable for comment.

angryed on June 3, 2009 at 12:33 PM

And yet when my son broke his leg last year, as soon as he was triaged, he was seen immediately by a doctor. He was then sent to x-ray and since x-rays are now digital, they were assessed right away. He was then casted up, with an appointment to see the child orthopedic surgeon the following week. All of this took about 3 hours and the cost was only $30.00 for the crutches.
The point is, there is good and bad in both systems. The bigger the population a hospital must handle here in Canada, obviously, the longer the wait for NON-emergencies. I am sure it is the same in the States. It is called triage. Damn straight a heart attack or other serious injury had better take precedent over stomach pains (and I know that doesn’t help the one waiting, but that’s just the way it is). Canadians will never be able to convince Americans the benefits of our health care system, just as you would be hard pressed to convince us to take on yours. Rather than bashing Canadians as ‘socialist’, and we bashing you guys as ‘uncaring bastards’, accept that we are different, it is what each country is used to, and move the hell on…

Mark, the question was asked by mph. I responded to him/her. Your response is correct, but it still boils down to control over the population to guarantee the power of the governing elites.

mph on June 3, 2009 at 12:20 PM

Difference is your 5 hour experience is considered a long wait. My sister’s 13 hours experience is normal.