You may shred the Canadian system but I have been a consumer of both and I much prefer ours thank you very much. Sure we have some challenges in our system but you sure do in your system also. There is NO competition in the healthcare insurance business in the USA. They are exempt from anti trust laws. Does that alone not tell you something. There is a bill before congress right now that will put an end to that at least. I personally am a big user of the Canadian health care system. I had a very bad accident 6 years ago and by and large I would give the treatments that I have had a 90% mark.
I think that it's beginning to look like the public option is going to go through and I think it's just a wonderful thing if it does. What are the insurance people afraid of? They will loose all their customers who they have been screwing over for a long long time?

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I'm a stranger in a strange land.

And there it is in a nut shell, the right wing philosphy. To you the fact that millions of people work doing essential jobs are WORTHLESS and why should the rest of us care if they can provide a life of basic necessities for them selves and their families or not. It is exactly this attitude toward working people that has caused me to detest the right wing. It's nothing more or less than a philosophy of exploitation of anyone or anything they can lay their grubby hands on.

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I'm a stranger in a strange land.

Anti Trust exemption? So? Could you explain how insurance companies have or have not benefited from this exemption?

And if you think the public supports the public option, post a source. You keep saying it, back it up with some facts.

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Support The Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Democrat Values: Jail for People Who Don't Buy Insurance, Citizenship for Border Jumpers

Political Correctness Will Be The Death Of Us All

Pray For Obama, Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take office."

Google, "public option polls", and weep.
The insurance industry has benefited by a lack of competition in the business. In any other field except health care insurance and MLB it's illegal.

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I'm a stranger in a strange land.

See, that's where you are wrong. Conservatives believe flipping burgers is a great job, for a high school kid or a retiree that just wants to get out of the house. Jobs like these are not meant to support families.
These types of jobs provide valuable experience and a modest income to take care of the most basic needs. Needs like a few gallons of gas in the jalopy to get you to and from home and school. They are not jobs one needs a great deal of education or training to perform. The point of a minimum wage job is to provide experience, not a lifetime career.

Some snot-nosed kid mumbling at me across the counter at a Burger King is not my definition of "working people". My definition of "working people" is the kid who is attentive, coherent and taking care of my needs as the paying customer, knowing full well that the $8 bucks an hour is nothing, but hustles anyway.

But NO!!!, we have to treat every job in America like everybody is a PhD.

Gimme a freaking break.

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Support The Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Democrat Values: Jail for People Who Don't Buy Insurance, Citizenship for Border Jumpers

Political Correctness Will Be The Death Of Us All

Pray For Obama, Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take office."

To expand on that: No, you are not supposed to raise 12 kids on $8 an hour. If you don't have the sense to realize that and avoid it, maybe that's why you're only making $8 an hour.

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The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

Yet again, ANOTHER "words mean things"...

health care SYSTEM, is NOT FREE MARKET enterprise.

SYSTEM and FREE are OXY-MORONS!

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No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

Costing over $900 billion isn't free, and 10 years to pay for 5 years of coverage isn't very smart. But, what do you expect out of Washington.

Look, it's simple. Don't gripe about it, because we ARE going to have a national health care plan. And there will be a public option. I think we all know that. If that makes you mad, then stop voting for the un-conservative republicans, and start supporting the Libertarians and do everything in your power to help get them elected. Because the Republicans aren't going to change back to their conservative ways.

For example: Did the republicans abolish Medicare/Medicaid when they had the control? No, they didn't. Why? Because they aren't conservative.

But, the good side of all of this, is that the friggin health insurance companies will finally have some real competition. And the prices for health insurance will drop.

So, if your an owner op, you won't be paying the $1,000 a month for health insurance. Your will probably drop to $500 or even less. And they will probably cover more. Maybe even pre-existing conditions.

If your a company driver, then you won't have to worry about your boss dropping health insurance all together. Like so many companies have had to do, since the sky rocketing cost have doubled, and put a huge burden on employers.

We're gonna get it. No if, ands or buts about it.

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We all can't be as perfect as some think they are.

REAL COMPETITION as you call it can only be had through *FREE* enterprise. GOVERNMENT DICTATING/LEGISLATING/MANDATING is NOT competition nor "free enterprise"...it is A SYSTEM of RULING over which is NOT a "republican" form of governance, which is The Constitution of these United States.

IF your so called "libertarian" desires are so good why weren't they adopted as a form of governance by the men who drafted The Constitution? THEY understood better than anyone "tyranny", that's why.

Giving in to "control" in the name of "the greater good" is pure unadulturated FOOLISHNESS, regardless of "label" or "propaganda" connected to a label.

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No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775