Well, it's official. The provice of Ontario, CA passed up Michigan in manufacturing cars.
WHY?? According to Zakaria at Newsweek, it's the rising cost of health care.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7446005/site/newsweek/
As someone who's lived in Canada, I can say there are issues with the system up there. However, I think it is a much more responsible system than the one down here & much more fiscally sound.
For all the neo-cons complaints about the costs of the Canadian system, the AMA did a research which showed that we in the US spend more than $200 billion more in admin costs alone vs. Canada.
I don't agree with all of Fareed's analysis but it is an interesting lead in to the health care crisis which NO ONE is addressing, esp. the idiot in the WH.
I have to tell you when I lived up there, I really learned to appreciate the fact that I didn't have to live in stress over my health & that if I got sick or needed to go to the hospital, I'd be taken care of -- & even though I was an American it was still going to be cheaper.
There are many benefits of Universal health:
- It is overall cheaper than our current system (see AMA & related studies).
- If you aren't afraid of health costs, you are not as apt to wait till shit hits the fan before going. This keeps costs down b/c it's castrophic & serious conditions that blow up health costs.
- The overall health of people is better b/c imagine (a) not living under the stress of health care costs & (b) they will go more often & do a better job of maintaining their health (& therefore avoid #2).
- Prescription drugs are cheaper & futhermore there's not the incentive to prescribe them for everything. This reduces the "pill for everything" culture that's pushed here & actually makes people try natural cures, like say ohhh, EXERCISE!?!?!?
Negatives:
1. The hole (& please clarify guys) that I saw was in catastrophic or specialist care. The line on that sometimes got long. Private care, like here, was available but at a cost (which I think was similar to here).
However, the horror stories of people dying in long lines was a neo-con myth as I saw it.
comments?