My comment is: Don't copy the Canadian system, at least as it exists today. 'Reform' (strange how the word is always presumed to have a positive outcome) up here has become somewhat like Castro's continuing 'revolution', essentially meaningless, a catchword for empowering a self serving cadre. Like all of the other Canadian bureaucracies, the healthcare systems have been overrun by corporate raiders--CEOs etc.--complete with all the trappings and perks that brought GM down. Bureaucratic imperatives have become the driving force; the medical people, who are the only ones who know what's really going on, try to ignore the declining efficiency--the misdirecting of funding-- as much as possible. Steps have been taken to make sure their input is muted. Healthcare's mission is to take off in strange new directions where no doctor has gone before but where fiscal scandal often lies. For example, the present priority is the endless collection of medical 'information' (there's never enouigh) at a cost of hundreds of millions. Meanwhile--damn those pesky patients!--the waiting lists themselves are becoming the subject of studies.
Don't worry, Obama has re-assured us that if we like our private insurance we can keep it!
Yeah right! Most people hate their private insurance companies. I am sorry for what CIGNA did to you. I am afraid we are not making progress towards single payer. I also think Obama's effort to rush through a bill by this fall is more of an attempt to saddle us with a crappy mandate to buy private insurance with only a weak private option. We really need more time to get organized to fight for a single-payer plan.
Here's a proposal: don't allow insurance companies to base their premiums on your age/health status/habits/etc. Make it illegal as if it were a form of discrimination (ie. "The right to health insurance"). That way, their actuarial computations would have to take into account the pool of Americans wanting health insurance. That way, we can truly shop for the lowest premiums. The only differences in cost would be the efficiency of their back-offices. That would surely be cheaper on the whole as compared to the current system (which is cheap until you have to renew your insurance after you've gotten sick). Although the healthier would have to take up some of the slack of the unhealthy. Plus there should be a minimum deductible (say 3000 dollars) so that patient's and doctor's decisions are still coupled to cost.
Just add in some incentives for a healthy lifestyle and (haven't figured that out yet), and we're set.
William Jefferson's loss to Joseph Cao was more about his cache of cold cash in his freezer. It didn't surprise me at all.
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