Recently, in the New Castle Post , J. Michael Donovan wrote about the Canadian health care system, which I understand from our many Canadian friends both here in Florida and in the Dominican Republic, works quite well. That said, I don't believe that is particularily germane to the US Healthcare Bill that was passed last year and/or recently discussed in Veazey's View.
Briefly, Canada has about 30 million people as against 300 million in the US. The Canadian system is quite specific to check-ups, treatment and medical care; whereas the US Healthcare Bill is a popouri of a dozens of side issues. That is, specifically, why I created the link to the Enrolled Bill in the The Fable of Contents. Any reader who is willing to take a very few minutes to to click onto this link, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:7:./temp/~c111MGWLC7:: to the Index of the Bill, can read any Section which might sound like a good thing for our healthcare problems here in the US, and see what the Bill's details actually call for. You will be shocked!
No matter which Section title you chose, you will find far different specific wording; -which is now the Law, then what is implied in the Section title. And, worst of all, in my mind are the billions of dollars that are authorized to be expended by the Secretary of Health at her discretion. And, the required reports and studies that will take years before completion. And, taxes for all sorts of medical related events. Please read it!
And so, the real question is not the relevance of the quality, or effectivness of any other country's healthcare program:--the question is, should our present Congress repeal the Enrolled Bill, so that specific fallacies in our former healthcare system be addressed.
There are faults aplenty in our current system, but to quote an old saw, "let's not throw out the baby with the bath water!" This is truly not a Republican or Democratic question. Our healthcare system had some flaws. Let's just fix them.
February, 2011
