Ed's pretty much right on the money IMHO. I was born and raised in
Canada, but the rest of my family returned to the US when I was 18. So
I've got experience with both sides.

I've gotta tell you, I wouldn't want the worry that an accident or
sudden illness could end my financial independence. My sister is a
lawyer that mostly works on Workman's Compensation type claims, and my
mother is a retired nurse. Listening to a few of their stories sure
makes you think about what could happen, even to the well prepared.
Here, if I'm injured, I know I can get good treatment, and I won't have
to sell/mortgage my home to get it. The fact that the system keeps
people from accruing huge debts for medical treatment has big benefits
to the workforce in general. Sure, there are some issues, but few of
them are because of the nature of our system, they have much more to do
with the nature of people.

Health care (or insurance) that is expensive for individuals has
implications that run through the whole functioning of a country.
Lawsuits are a big example, and it seems that a lot of the 'frivolous'
lawsuits in the US come out of the fact that people incur relatively
huge debts for fairly minor medical treatment. The idea that an
insurance company could refuse or modify a treatment recommended or
prescribed by my Doctor is also bothersome (to put it mildly) to me.

Every system will have its issues, and none of them are perfect.

Pete
--
Pete Snell
Department of Physics
Royal Military College
Kingston, Ontario,
Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
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