Still Tuned In?

My last post developed just a little bit of discussion between friends on FB and others that just read it and dialogued with me.  It has forced me to dig up a few of my own ideas, numbers and conclusions.

Lets look at Canada, for a few reasons.

One: they are next door and culturally they are very similar to the United States as you go from East to West.  Two: I have family there that are politically aware and a little conservatively minded.
Three: they have a ‘socialized’ health care system.
Four: I have a Canadian flag that hangs from my office door thanks to the previously mentioned Canadian family.

Many around here think that if we were to model our health care after Canada we would be inviting a bloated system that doesn’t really serve the patients and rations health care and we would be giving half of our paycheck to the government to pay for this poor version of health care.  Its also been said that Canadians often come to the US for their health needs because we’re the best.  I’ve got news for you.  They Mayo clinic is the best, I’ve never been there and probably never will be there.  The best I can hope for is UCSD or Loma Linda Research Hospitals.

Here are a few things that I know about Canada:

They have some of the most amazing mt bike parks in the world and almost anyone could go there and ride them because no one is afraid of getting sued because too much fun turned into a broken you-name-it.  Hmm….wonder what thats all about?

From what I hear from MY family there the health system works pretty good.  No long lines, care when you need it.  Preventative care when you want it.  No medical bankruptcy.

How about some numbers?  According to the OECD in 2005 (sorry, didn’t find anything more recent) a married couple with 2 kids paid 21.5% of their income for taxes (federal, state, etc).  That is compared to 11.9% for the same family in the U.S.  Sounds pretty disproportionate and that we in the US have it MADE!  Well, here is something else I know.  I saw the numbers on my wife’s health insurance package when she was working full time.  I saw the approximate contribution from the employer as a matter of fact.  That contribution combined with what she contributed amounted to about 25% of her GROSS income.  Now, we weren’t paying the lion’s share of that, but someone was!  It was part of her compensation package.  So, lets just pretend that dollar amount is actually a tax being paid.  And, assuming we fell into the typical U.S. family bracket of 11.9% (which is close) our new tax rate would be 36.9%.

So, if we know that the Canadian taxation rate includes the health taxes I would have to say, at least where my family’s numbers are concerned that they are doing something right up there and SOMEONE is paying less for health care and EVERYONE is covered by the same system.  [Scratching my head].  Again, I know that the dollar amount for health insurance wasn’t being put up by us, but it kind of was – remember it was part of the compensation package.  The employer was paying it.  SOMEONE HAS TO PAY, THIS ISN’T FREE.

YOU CAN’T HAVE A BASIC RIGHT THAT CAN ONLY BE GRANTED AT THE MATERIAL EXPENSE OF ANOTHER.  Just doesn’t work.  Pursuit of life, happiness, whatever is easy to define as a RIGHT, it doesn’t impose ANYTYHING on another other than the requirement to not intentionally BLOCK your right for his gain.

I digress…

The COB says that the new health options on the table will cost 1 trillion dollars and save 4 billion or something.  Bad deal.  They say something like an additional 16 million people will be covered by the new program or will be herded into existing plan options.  I think more than that are currently not covered.  Sounds to me like bad designs.  Why CAN’T we look at another system that seems to be working well and replicate it?  Why reinvent the wheel?  Honest question here?  Can anyone tell me?  Cause right now, the only reason I see is that we are a stiff necked people.  Winston Churchill was right:

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”

Harsh?  Yes.  Frustrated?  Yes.  We can do better than this.