I realize there are pros and cons when it comes to the American health care debate. The main danger that comes with socialized medicine is that potentially the quality of physicians may decrease thanks to what would amount to caps on their wages and there could be less incentive to for research to happen as costs will need to come down, and in order to cut costs, drug prices need to come down.
As for the examples being thrown about using Canada, I'm sick of it. Personally, I do not know one person who went to the USA for any treatment. I know many people obviously have gone to the USA. But the stories of saved lives from doing so are few and far between. Yes, waiting times can be a bitch here, but does it really matter when we look at what is achieved collectively?
One stat that I just can't get away from is the fact that Canadians have a life expectancy two years greater than Americans. In fact, the USA ranks 47th on the list of countries in this category. Canada ranks 8th.
I don't buy diet or geography as being the reason why Canadians tend to live longer. I think Canadians eat just as much junk food collectively as Americans. And there are plenty of cold weather modern countries that have much lower life expectancies than Canada and even the USA.
America has more poverty pockets than Canada, at least right now they do. That contributes to lower life expectancy, as does gang violence and of course, the war doesn't help America's numbers, though we have lost quite a few Canadians in Afghanistan, America has lost a bigger percentage of their population.
Blacks in America have a life expectancy of around 6 years less than the average, and this brings down the average in the USA as well.
So lets say that when you take everything into consideration, lets just say that Canadians and Americans are expected to live the same life span, and expect the same quality of life as well.
The health care debate should just boil down to economics only. What system makes more economic sense when factoring in that as many citizens as possible need to be covered for anything that endangers their life.
As for the Town Hall bs. To me, all I see are a bunch of pissed off Republicans who have no clue what the issues are (I know, that there are a few that do know something). But for the most part, they are whining babies who can't cope with things like progress, a black Democrat in the White House, the thumping they took in the last election, Palin jokes, separation of church and state, and in probably most cases, EVOLUTION.
I'm convinced that 90% plus of the conservatives, who are making the USA look like a state full of mindless idiots at these Town Halls, do not accept evolution. I don't think that is a big stretch, since 45% of Americans do not accept evolution, and most of those are Republicans (the anti-science Party).
I'd like to see a few polls to prove I'm right. I know I am, but it would be nice to confirm it.