Ninety One Percent of Canadians believe that their heath care system is better than that of the US.

Here's the truth!

I suppose that people like Ava Isabella Stinson would make up that 9% who dont like it. Fortunately for her, there were plenty of open beds at the NICU across the border in Buffalo.

http://www.thespec.com/article/590540

Please go buy yourself a clue when you land a new job Greg.

Mike, care to name the insurance company that would make the international calls necessary to find care for a preemie when the inn's full up?

...

Yeah. I didn't think so.

The times when the Ontario provincial health care system fail are not representative of the entire country. Ontario has no provincial health care ombudsman (and Quebec has a very weak one), so pretty much every failure listed by the right-wing in Canada comes from one of those two provinces. Granted, Ontario is the most populous province, but Toronto =/= Canada no matter what a Torontonian would tell you.

Frankly, even having a two-week wait on average for elective surgeries is surprising around here. Please, do read up about Canadian health care before parroting the anti-socialism rhetoric the right loves spouting. I mean, hell, an afternoon on Wikipedia would probably enlighten you, regardless of how Wiki-reality works.

I wonder why there were "plenty of open beds", the linked article in no way makes Canadian healthcare look bad. In fact, if you pay attention to what it says it is actually a testiment to it's efficacy that they were able to secure care in the U.S. in a timely fashion, that the mother is receiving post partum care, and that apparently the family is not going to have to file for bankruptcy because they don't have to worry about not being covered.

I suggest that your linked article supports the need for a similar system of universal care in the U.S. and not what you wish it did.

I bet there are many reasons for "plenty of open beds" in the U.S. hospital, worth looking into.

I don't have any experience with the Canadian health care system, but I had a couple of medical emergencies the short time I lived in England, and the care I received was excellent. The best part by far though, was when they handed me the paperwork I needed to fill out to get treatment and it said just two things: Name and Address.

Perhaps the beds in your US hospitals would be fuller if they stopped dumping poor and often incoherent patients on the street and stopped making ambulances search on route for a hospital willing to take people whose lives are in jeopardy that don't have insurance or a credit card.

Healthcare in canada is not free ... we glady pay taxes for it, and can sleep knowing that most of the time it will take good care of us.

You americans have to learn to accept that some things are worth paying taxes for, and that by doing so you are not surrendering to 'socialism'.

Mike, care to name the insurance company that would make the international calls necessary to find care for a preemie when the inn's full up?

Thats the point, they would never have to.

Yeah ... thats what I thought.

Mike H, your head is on fire.

Mike H you moron! That is very nice of the Buffalo hospital, which is a few minutes from the Hamilton hospital, to provide a NICU for the baby. There is all kinds of back and forth across this border for extreme cases, trauma, emergencies, and so on. The problem that the people can't get across the border is because of YOUR PEOPLE you fucking idiot! The paranoia and disjointed response of the US government because of 9/11 = passports required across a border that has been open since the war of 1812. You can thank George Bush for the problem represented in this story.

You're honestly saying that if Canada had "better", American-style healthcare, that we wouldn't have a full hospital and have to broker the baby across the border to get help from a supporting hospital? I question the logic behind that. Given that your big problem is that nobody's got sufficient insurance to cover the costs of a preemie baby, yeah, our hospitals wouldn't have the problem of being full, because nobody'd be getting any care whatsoever.

That's right, likely not even that premature baby. Sounds suspiciously like "rationing" to me -- you only get healthcare if you're rich. Let the poor die in the streets. Pro life until they're out of the womb, then they're on their fucking own.

I have over 25 years of experience with the Canadian health care system, and I'm surprised the 91% is that low. US Health Care is a running joke in Canada.

A kid's soccer injury became a permanent disability because of a wait? How many kids in the US don't even go to get it checked out because their parents can't afford it? How many Americans die waiting in overloaded ERs? You think maybe if Canada DOUBLED their health care budget they could reduce some of those lines?

The US is good at very high end expensive procedures. We're not very good at keeping our population healthy. And we're extremely good at wasting health care dollars.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is that Mike H is a fucking idiot douchebag. Not that that makes him wrong (the facts make him wrong), but I'm just sayin'.

Dan: nailed it. High-five!

Dan, from your picture (soul patch, aging liberal hippie pony tail, soft supple aging man titties) you sir would seem to a quintessential study in douchery. Seriously, you are like a walking stereotype.

And Frenchie, no one gives a flying fuck what you think .

Why, Dan, I do believe you touched a nerve. Would that there were enough of them to constitute a brain.

Mike, plenty of people care what Jason thinks. Once again, wishful thinking does not affect the real world.

Gosh, Mike, the way you talk about my supple body makes me wonder about your sexual proclivities as well. I may have to change some of my opinions about you.

Now, if you'd like to discuss the health care issue while sticking to the facts… Oh, wait: You've already shown us that you're unable to do that (Like most other conservatives). Forget I said anything.

Yeah, Stephanie, I forgot to touch on that part.

Since the title of the post is "Ninety One Percent of Canadians believe that their heath care system is better than that of the US", it would seem to make sense that the opinions of fine Canadian citizens like Jason are of the utmost import to the discussion.

I still feel flattered that Mikey took the time to check out my photo. *blush*

Nobody asked us Canucks to stick our noses into the healthcare debate where we're used primarily as counterexamples to the efficacy of ZOMG SOCIALISM. Hilarious! You point to us as some kind of proof that socialism doesn't work, and yet we all love our health care so much. Except for that 9% that wants to privatize -- that number is likely made up of a conservative coterie of mostly-doctors.

Forget the fact that our extraordinarily low incidence of horror stories runs drastically counter to the extraordinarily high incidence of American horror stories. For every one mistake we Canucks have made with health care (and we're only human!), I could find you a hundred of American not-mistakes, but intentionally crafted horror stories designed to maximize profits for a few very very rich people.

Also -- oooh. Frenchie. You're so clever, realizing I'm bilingual. Not that I'm trying to speak French to you here at all. And not that being bilingual is a *bad* thing, except in the right wing's collective minds, wherein knowledge is horrible.

I wonder about the 9% who don't like it - that's actually a pretty substantial minority against a system that's supposed to be "universally popular".

Paul, more than 9% of people don't like chocolate--or free beer. There are no universals.

Yes, there is a small, but vocal, minority that wants us to have American-style health care. There's actually a couple of for-profit hospitals in Ontario, in fact. Check the second video here: http://www.lousycanuck.ca/?p=1613

There will always be room for private facilities. I'm also of the opinion that there will always be groups who want to see less room for government supplied facilities or programs.

How many US Army Privates go on KP duty these days? Oh, that's right. Haliburton (or a subsidiary) handles all that sort of thing. How cost effective is it? I'd guess that it isn't, just as today's health insurance system in the US is not cost effective (unless you happen to work for one of the insurance companies).

Mike, it's so kind of you to keep showing up and providing blatant, tangible evidence of the bigotry of the right wing.

Stephanie - you're right (well duh!) :) if it wasn't for people like Mike we might get complacent. Then again if it weren't for people like Mike you Americans might have a nice country worth visiting again.

As a 60 year old Canadian I can say without a doubt that we have one of the best health care systems in the world. Does it have problems - sure, no system is without problems. Does it work, absolutely. Of course I'm a little biased because due to serious health issues as a child I wouldn't be alive today if I had grown up in the US - my parents were poor and could never have afforded US style insurance premiums.

AS it was the year or so I spent in the hospital cost them $1/day for the semi-private room I was in. That's it. Gosh they got to keep their house and I got to keep living, wow what an evil system it is.

Keep talking, Doug. You're making some of us get closer to the edge where we decide whether it's worth more to us to fight for what we should have here, or give up and go to where it already exists.

The fact that I even consider such a statement is a sad testimony to the idiocy of the ultra-conservative right wing.