[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:33:02 -0400
Brian,
I don't know, of course, but I suspect that your friend's daughter was
taken care of at public expense because she qualifies for medicaid (or
some such program) because of her income level. But what of the
working poor? My sister (in Indiana) has often foregone quite essential
doctor visits because she could not afford it. That just doesn't happen
here (except, perhaps, for travel expenses, etc. from faraway towns
(which should be recompensed, but often aren't)).
You're right, certainly, that beauracracies take on a life of their own,
but I'm not sure that that kind of bloating is worse than the
robber-baron mentality of much of the private sector. Capitalism is
good for the consumer at the beginning, but soon works its way towards
monopoly (see the 1890s) and then milks the system worse than any
bloated bureaucracy (all the while touting the blessings of private
enterprise). Bureaucracies operate to perpetuate and aggrandize
themselves, but not from a profit motive. I think the difference in our
disappointment and anger comes from our expectations of them.
Government should serve our interests. We have no such expectation of
private companies.
As to the Americans pretending to be Canadians, I think they are not the
poor (who you say could access the same expenseless operations in the
US) -- the poor can't afford the travel, etc.. More likely, they are
upper middle class people with connections and chutzpah and the
wherewithal to travel . But I don't really know.
Ursula
in North Bay
Brian wrote:
>On 5/24/05, Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
>>>Brian:
>>>Decent to poor is generally the consensus I read and hear and I think
>>>I'd call the health care system itself a boondoggle. The debacle of
>>>treating health care as a right.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Well, call me crazy, but I'm happy with it. (Not that it couldn't use
>>improvements...or even an overhaul). Most Americans get their
>>impressions of the Canadian system from the mouths of the AMA and the
>>health care insurance industry. My mother has had three brain
>>surgeries to remove tumours in the last twenty-five years. The first
>>was in the States (she lived in Chicago then) and, even with Blue Cross,
>>she paid for ten years on that debt. The other two she had here in
>>Canada (after immigrating in the 1980s) and never paid a penny. Pretty
>>good value for her $700 health premium. I know that's just anecdotal
>>evidence and can be countered with stories about waiting lines and
>>shortages etc., but it is enough evidence for me that the system works
>>'decently'.
>>
>>
>
>I'm sorry to hear about your mother. When I talk to people from
>Canada and read about the system I hear of the same inefficient,
>bloated, wasteful signatures that are part and parcel of a
>bureaucracy. Has anyone seen the film THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS where
>the filmmaker skewers the Canadian health system?
>
>
>
>>> (Canadian health cards, by the way, fetch a pretty penny on your side =
>>>
>>>
>of the border.)
>
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Really? I can't imagine why. Even in the frozen tundra I guess the
>>>grass looks greener on the other side.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Meaning? You can't imagine that there are Americans playing Canadians
>>to get free medical care?
>>
>>
>
>Yes, exactly. You can do that in the U.S. without the waits and red
>tape you have in Canada. The daughter of a friend of mine is without
>insurance and just had her second child and she hasn't paid anything
>for either births (from the doctor visits all the way up to the
>hospital bills. Her daughter just born is badly deformed and they
>only expect her to live days, not weeks, all paid for by the American
>public). Again, anecdotal, but I wouldn't personally choose the
>Canadian system over our seriously broken own.
>
>~Brian~
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
>digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
>
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
