Blog Exchange

Kevin Freking has written an interesting 7 part article over on ehealthhelp.com. His article discusses the pro's/cons of Health Insurance Plans vs a socialized system. Freking specifically discusses the various platforms of the political parties (and differences within the party) of America, and what they hope to accomplish.

I live in Canada, and we have socialized health care. Although, I am not very clear on how there health care works. I cringe at the idea of possibly dying because of an inability to afford health care. Canada is actually in the process of working out a 2-Teir health system. It is an attempt to leverage both benefits of health insurance and socialized health care.

One of the drawbacks, we face in Canda (as compared to the US), is very long wait times in our hospitals. Since health care is funded by our taxes and available to everyone, it gets a lot of utilization, and certains costs (such as Doctors salaries may have limits. Regardless, I still feeling extremely lucky to have our health care system, and I don't mind one bit the taxes that go to help ensure each an every Canadian has the same right to quality health care.

I find it very interesting, that as Canadians attempt to move toward a 2-Teir heath system, combining both private and public health care. The US system is working towards helping make health care available to more Americans. I can't help but wonder if we will eventually reach the same conclusions?

I often have a hard time understanding the notion of why "socialized health system" is looked at so negativily. Freking gives us the example of two people working on an assignment. One person puts in 110% and the other person slacks off and does nothing. Is it fair, that they should both get similar grades?

My problem with the analogy, is the attempt to compare individual accomplishments (skills, attitude, knowledge) with health and welfare. Sure some people work harder then others, does this automatically mean they have more of a right to live and breath as someone else? Perhaps, they deserve to accomplish more in life, perhaps they deserve better health, and more happiness. But does a "slacker" diserve to die because of their poor life choices? This seems a little harsh to me. The bigger question is what about those to are working 100% but just don't have the talent as others, or just has 'bad luck'. Do these people diserve to die for the cards they are dealt in life?

Anyway, check out Frekings views at the link below. Go Universal Health Care !

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// posted by Anonymous  @ 3:15 AM