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Better Health Care A Border Away
by green | November 23, 2006 at 03:42 pm
1076 views | 0 Recommendations | 3 comments
Thirty years ago, I had my gall bladder removed and had to spend three or four days in hospital. When I was discharged, I was presented with the bill â a total of $5.50 for the use of the television set in my semi-private room. The Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan paid the rest.It is important for Americans to know that people in Canada tend to live a couple of years longer than their U.S. counterparts and that Canada's infant mortality rate is lower. This is attributed to the fact that everyone â young, old, working or unemployed â is covered for basic hospital and medical care in Canada without co-insurance or deductibles. This is in contrast to the United States, where there are more uninsured people (over 40 million) than Canadian inhabitants.




Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 00:29 on November 25th, 2006
Americans should be ashamed of their health care system. There is simply no excuse for the wealthest country in the world to have a health care system that leaves so many out in the cold.
at 14:24 on February 8th, 2007
Americans easily led the world in paying to be healthy, spending $1.3 trillion
on health care in 2000, or 13.2 percent of the total U.S. gross domestic
product, far more than any other nation.
at 23:10 on November 29th, 2008
"Socialized Medicine" is primarily an ideology championed by the Democrats. However, contrary to popular belief, a nationalized health care system has never actually been on the agenda for President Elect Obama. His agenda has always been to assist those who are rendered uninsurable and or are in need of assistance in obtaining health care coverage due to low income.
Part of his plan is to expand the role of SCHIP and State Insurance Risk Pools so that those who are rendered "uninsurable" on the individual major medical market have guaranteed insurability through their respective State Risk Pools. Many states already have this option. However states such as Arizona and Florida do not. These states desperately need such Risk Pools. Unfortunately, until now they have not been able to receive enough Federal funding to expand this much needed role. States that do have risk pools are listed here: http://www.naschip.org/states_pools.htm
President Elect Obama wishes to provide more Federal funding to these existing risk pools to drive the premiums down, thereby making this option more affordable for those rendered uninsurable.
One of the reasons that a "nationalized" health care system has never been on Obama's agenda is most likely due to the terrible failure of such programs in countries such as France & Canada. A common example used to further the cause of "socialized medicine" in the United States is to point out how well it is working in Canada. However, those living in Canada know full well that their government run health care program is most certainly not working.
As a matter of fact, many Canadian citizens choose to hire high priced brokers to find them quality health care right here in the United States because of the terrible bureaucracy that controls all forms of health care in Canada. For more about what is really going on with the Canadian health care system please watch these short but very informative documentary videos:
http://www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php
http://www.freemarketcure.com/twowomen.php
http://www.freemarketcure.com/thelemon.php
The number of actual uninsured's in the US has been grossly inflated as well. For the real numbers watch: http://www.freemarketcure.com/uninsuredinamerica.php
The truth of the matter is we already have an enormous amount of entitlement programs available to those who find themselves unable to pay for their health care. Often times these entitlement programs are offered to those who are here legally and illegally as was the case in the State of Illinois: http://www.sbisvcs.com/healthinsuranceblog.htm
Most recently, the State of Hawaii tried to emulate the Medicaid Expansion programs that were enacted in Illinois. It took less than 7 months to render their program bankrupt: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93SBEUG0&show_article=1
All things considered, the best way to offset the high cost of health care in the US is to adopt the initiatives set forth over a decade ago by Senator Bill Archer (R) of Texas. The Health Savings Account (commonly referred to as a "Medical IRA") is a unique option that maintains high quality health insurance coverage for the policy holder whilst also building a tax deductible, tax deferred interest bearing account for the insured to use for future medical expenses. Even if these expenses would not normally be covered by the policy holder's health insurance plan. For more about the "intelligent health insurance choice" (HSA qualified HDHP's) please click here: http://www.sbisvcs.com/HSA%20&%20HDHP.html
About the Author:
C. Steven Tucker is President of Small Business Insurance Services, Inc., and is a multi-state licensed health insurance broker who has been servicing the small business and self-employed community since 1995.
Mr. Tucker serves as a health insurance subject matter expert for the The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Business Magazine, Real Estate Executive Magazine, The Nashville Business Journal & The Tennessean and other business journals around the country. He has also written numerous articles that focus on consumer education, which include, tips on buying health insurance, advice on avoiding health insurance scams, selecting a reputable health insurance agent, questions you should ask before purchasing a policy and other insurance topics. Many questions regarding health insurance can be found on the FAQ section of his web site. He can also be contacted via Email at steve@sbisvcs.com or Toll-Free 1-866-SBIS123 (724-7123) Author Links:Blog URL: http://www.sbisvcs.com/blog.htm
Business URL: http://www.sbisvcs.com