[Leica] Socialism?

[locke at straylight.ca (Greg Locke)]

> 
> Perhaps you'll tell us why Canadians flock to the US to get 
> operations and other medical treatment that your fine 
> socialist medical system can't provide? Much like when I was 
> in England, it's because everything is backlogged for months 
> or even years.

Walker,

The only Canadians who flock to the US for health care, and I admit it's the
best money can buy, but only for those who can afford it, are the wealthy
Canadians. And sometime when the local healthcare boards send them there
because of backlogs or specialised treatment. I certainly could not afford
to pay for travel to the USA AND pay thousands of dollars for treatments or
operations.

(Although, I was lucky enough to get treated for free in a US military
hospital in Florida (the stupid things you do on vacation) when I was
younger because my uncle was a army colonel.) 

So, last year when I smashed up my Achilles tendon on a job, I limped into a
hospital in Gander, NFLD, waited an hour, saw a lovely South African doctor
who x-rayed it, put it in a cast, gave me some Demerol and sent me on my
way. The direct cost to me? $0.000 NADA, ZIP, NOTHING.  What would that have
cost me if I was travelling in the USA? A couple of thousand dollars?  

While I bitch and complain about taxes as much as anyone, I got a lot more
out of the system than I paid in that night. Why?  Because me and a bunch of
my "friends" got together and said, "Hey, none of us can afford to build a
hospital and hire doctors by ourselves so lets pool our money and do it
together, that way it will be there for all of us when we need it". COOL!!
...what a great idea and now we have a healthy "community".

A friend in Boston had a child the same time we did four years ago. Cost him
US$4000.00 in medical bills. He sold his car to pay for it. The cost to me
for the delivery of my child and 1 week in hospital for my wife? CAN$500.00.
It would have been $0.00 but I chose to pay for a private room.  ...and we
had the usual family doctor, obstetrician, paediatrician, ultrasounds, blood
tests, heart monitors just like the rest of the western world.

What is wrong with this picture? This is not communism or some other archaic
delusional political label.

It's common sense for a civilized nation to use the tax money of the whole
to provide a reasonable and standard level of healthcare for all its
citizens. This is the purpose of government and why it was invented. It
allows a society to do as a whole what an individual cannot.  ...and ALL
western industrialized nations do it, except for the USA.  How is that
EVERYONE else is wrong?

Well, they're not. It's just that they have different values. Not everyone
believes that purpose of everything is making money. Some things are for the
overall good of the country and society as a whole.... not just the
individual. Taking care of your poor, less privileged and YOURSELF is the
sign of a modern civilized nation and this in no way diminishes the
entrepreneurial spirit and individual freedoms valued by the people of the
USA.

We all value those but most also value a strong and cohesive society that
reflects and supports basic human values.

...and you notice none of this mentions any political ideology, mostly
because I do not believe in selfish causes, but because its about human
values not political or economic values.


Comrade Greg Locke
Peoples Socialist Republic of Free Newfoundland

PS: I'll tell you a great story about the Communist Bricklayers in Dublin
sometime :^)