Hi Jock

Our medical system isn't perfect, of course. What macro national program actually is? If anyone cares to compile a list of American ones that work flawlessly, I'd love to see it. For the far right homers, who will likely say that such entities are flawed because of government's involvement, show us a large business that functions perfectly. Listen very carefully then, to the voices who mock the efforts of countries that proactively seek to adequately protect ALL of their citizens, rather than only the rich. Invariably, they will return to the line of BS, which essentially entails looking for flaws in a healthcare system, when they know that no large entity is ever perfect. What's the point? There is none and the people parroting such noise know it. They persist because they are not interested in truth, only self-serving politicking.

Try living outside of the USA for an extended period of time, and you will see how vacuous the USA's debate over this issue is. It is astonishingly backward and heartless policy, relatively speaking, especially when one considers that the USA is the wealthiest country in the world. What a national disgrace.

Obama's attempt to rectify this situation was one of the most laudable things I can ever remember coming out of US macro policy. However, the moment when I saw how he intended to do it, I figured it was destined to fail. You CANNOT monetize health and leave national health policy up to the whims of the free market. The only way to do this, is to nationalize health care. You can't compromise with the Devil, which in this case is greed personified.

Give US citizen full universal coverage once, and he/she will never give it up.

From the time of Adam Smith,the principal justification of free enterprise has been that it distributes wealth to society as a whole. Other developed nations recognized, decades ago, that this concept can translate to health for all.

What I can say, speaking as somebody who is American and Canadian, and has lived in both countries for many years, is that the peace of mind in this country because of medical care makes this service far, far beyond 'pretty good'. It is FANTASTIC, compared to what's going on south of the 49th, where citizens are basically treated as a commodity and kicked to the curb if they can't come up with enough green paper. Early in life, I used to be proud to be Canadian. Then I became mostly grateful. Thinking about this issue, I am reminded that I feel both towards Canada. People up here try to be nice. We continue to try to make our health care system better. And guess what? We've got a pretty damned good health care system after all these years, thank you very much.

Props to the Kiwis for tweaking the concept further. This isn't a contest. It's about the betterment of taxpaying citizens who spend the majority of their working lives running an economy that becomes increasingly skewed in favor of the rich with each passing days.