Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Support for National Health Insurance Plan

Well I'm not hear to put my opinion into a thread about American Health Care but I do want to clear up any misconceptions that have surfaced over Canadian Health Care.

First our health care isn't national, our at least isn't run nationally. Our Federal government gives money to our provinces which individually administer their own health care system. For example I live in Ontario and have an OHIP plan (Ontario Health Insurance plan). This is good anywhere in Canada where I am travelling. If I leave my OHIP is still good but they suggest getting a supplementary health insurance plan which I do through CAA (which is the Canadian division of AAA) only because the plan caps the money they will pay out for certain services and those costs aren't regulated outside of Canada.

Second I'd like to make a point of all the drugs are developed in the U.S. and that is where Canadian and Mexican drugs come from. Yeah, no.

The Canadian Drug industry as of 2005 consists of 130 pharmaceutical and 165 biopharmaceutical companies. All of these companies hold patents in the U.S. ranging from high blood pressure medication to the treatment of cancer and HIV. They also produce many of the off the shelf stuff you can buy in the U.S.

Did you know also know that Canada supplies 75% of the U.S. flu vaccinations? Yep, it's true. Canada's flu vaccination facilities are some of the best in the world. We supply many nations around the world. There is an agreement between our government's that in the case of a flu pandemic Canada will support the U.S. without cutting off supplies. Last year alone there was a concern that we wouldn't have enough vaccinations for ourselves because so much of the supply was sent to the States.

Now the rest of this is my opinion, take it for what it is. No government drug plan can work without one thing, raising taxes. That's it. You have to pay for it somehow there is no way around it. Living across the border from Detroit I watch a lot of American television and news. Whenever I see voting taking place for a new tax hike I have to snicker. Another post mentioned Detroit's low level of high school graduates at 24.5% but every time there is a vote on raising taxes for schools it gets voted down. How are school officials supposed to run a system in 2008 with a budget from the 1960's? The blame isn't on officials, it's on the constituents who refuse to pay for the services they want. If you take the amount of money that you are paying into a private health care system and pay that in taxes, what is the difference?

Now the one thing I haven't touched on yet is the availability of medical services. Yes wait times are long in some cases and I would like to see them improve but I also have to say that I believe many Americans are sent for services that they don't require. I can easily see many Doctors sending patients for medical testing which isn't required but the hospital has purchased new equipment and it must be paid for.

Just to end this since it's a lot longer than I ever wanted it to be but I have never seen a bill of any kind for treatment I have received and I like that.