which provides universal health care to its citizens, just announced a 9 billion dollar fiscal SURPLUS.
I may be wrong, but I have heard that Canadians often have to wait months to get this "universal health care" and waiting lists for doctors can reach unreal lengths too. I don't know about you, but I prefer to go to the Dr when I'm sick, not a month from now.
From the Seattle Times http://www.angelfire.com/pa/sergeman/issues/healthcare/ailing.html All the major candidates in Canada's recent national election acknowledged that the country's health-care system is failing Canadians. The common prescription, however, was just to spread more taxpayer money on it — the usual nostrum of socialism. In the end, no major candidate had the political courage to tell the truth about the ailing Canadian system. Indeed, on the other side of the border, Americans such as Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, fantasize about importing the Canadian health-care dream to the U.S. so that every citizen has comparable "equal access" to medical care. But more and more Canadians are awakening — not from a dream, but from a nightmare. The results are coming in. After years of government control, the medical system is badly injured and bleeding citizens' hard-earned tax dollars. A study recently released by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., compared industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that strive to provide universal health-care access. Among those countries, Canada spends most on its system while ranking among the lowest in such indicators as access to physicians, quality of medical equipment and key health outcomes. One of the major reasons for this discrepancy is that, unlike other countries in the study that outperformed Canada — such as Sweden, Japan, Australia and France — Canada outlaws most private health care. If the government says it provides a medical service, it's illegal for a Canadian citizen to pay for and get the service privately. At the same time, to try to keep spending down, the government chips away at the number and variety of covered services. According to another Fraser Institute survey, this means that on average a patient must wait in line 17.7 weeks for hospital treatment. In 1999, Dr. Richard F. Davies described how delays affected Ontario heart patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. In a single year, just for this one operation, 71 Ontario patients died before surgery, "121 were removed from the list permanently because they had become medically unfit for surgery" and 44 left the province to have their CABG surgery elsewhere, often in the U.S. In other words, 192 people either died or were too sick to have surgery before they worked their way to the front of the waiting line. Yet, the Ontario population of about 12 million is only 4 percent of the population of the United States. In an article in the journal Health Affairs, Robert Blendon describes an international survey of hospital administrators in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, the U.S. and Canada. When asked for the average waiting time for biopsy of a possible breast cancer in a 50-year-old woman, 21 percent of administrators of Canadian hospitals said more than three weeks; only 1 percent of American hospital administrators gave the same answer. Fifty percent of the Canadian hospital administrators said the average waiting time for a 65-year-old man who requires a routine hip replacement was more than six months; in contrast, not one American hospital administrator reported waiting periods that long. Eighty-six percent of American hospital administrators said the average waiting time was shorter than three weeks; only 3 percent of Canadian hospital administrators said their patients have this brief a wait. Canadian physicians' frustration with their inability to provide quality and timely care is resulting in a brain drain. A doctor shortage looms as the nation falls 500 doctors a year short of the 2,500 new physicians it needs, according to Sally C. Pipes, president of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute. Another casualty of the lengthy waiting periods is Canada's much-vaunted equal access to medical treatment. Even though medical emergencies allow some people to jump ahead in the waiting line — making others wait longer — a survey published in the Annals of Internal Medicine medical journal found that more than 90 percent of heart specialists had "been involved in the care of a patient who received preferential access" to cardiac care because of non-medical reasons including the patient's social standing or personal connections with the treating physician. The Canadian system works fine for minor problems, but danger lies ahead as baby boomers age and more serious illnesses afflict them. Call it "Canadazation," the myth of high-quality, "free" care. Its real costs in human suffering are ones that U.S. proponents don't want you to know about. Dr. Robert J. Cihak, of Kirkland, is a senior fellow and board member of the Discovery Institute and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
If it's so wonderful, then why not just carry your socialist ass to Canada? Nobody here will stop you. In fact, I'm sure we could get more than enough volunteers to help you pack. :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:
http://www.cica.ca/multimedia/Downl...irs/Government_Affairs/Policy_Final_Nov26.pdf On Page 4 of this document you will find the statement "Canada’s personal income tax levels are well above the average of those of the 29 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development." There are now 30 members of this organization. Listing them from http://www.oecd.org/document/58/0,2340,en_2649_201185_1889402_1_1_1_1,00.html yields: AUSTRALIA: 7 June 1971 AUSTRIA: 29 September 1961 BELGIUM: 13 September 1961 CANADA: 10 April 1961 CZECH REPUBLIC: 21 December 1995 DENMARK: 30 May 1961 FINLAND: 28 January 1969 FRANCE: 7 August 1961 GERMANY: 27 September 1961 GREECE: 27 September 1961 HUNGARY: 7 May 1996 ICELAND: 5 June 1961 IRELAND: 17 August 1961 ITALY: 29 March 1962 JAPAN: 28 April 1964 KOREA: 12 December 1996 LUXEMBOURG: 7 December 1961 MEXICO: 18 May 1994 NETHERLANDS: 13 November 1961 NEW ZEALAND: 29 May 1973 NORWAY: 4 July 1961 POLAND: 22 November 1996 PORTUGAL: 4 August 1961 SLOVAK REPUBLIC: 14 December 2000 SPAIN: 3 August 1961 SWEDEN: 28 September 1961 SWITZERLAND: 28 September 1961 TURKEY: 2 August 1961 UNITED KINGDOM: 2 May 1961 UNITED STATES: 12 April 1961 You think astronomical personal income tax levels might have something to do with both universal health care and high budget surpluses? I hate to use a Ramah-ism, but you are officially considered "used, dissed, and dismissed".
THIS JUST IN: SOCIALISM DOESN'T WORK!!!!! FREE MARKET ECONOMY HAS BEEN PROVEN THE MOST EFFECTIVE!!!!!!
I can see Canada running a surplus. They don't have to spend any money on defense. They know the USA will defend them.
Actually, I heard that Canada was planning on contributing military help to the effort in Iraq...it was to consist of troops, naval resources, and air support. Of course, at the current exchange rate, that works out to two Mounties, a couple of canoes and a flying squirrel. :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:
ouch. that is so anti-freedom that even if the health care was 10 times better and 10 times cheaper i would still hate it.
