I am a Canadian IT professional who spent five years in the US at various locations on the east and west coast. I think that if you are insured you do get better healthcare than Canada affords, however you will also find in the US that you will be subjected to unnecessary medical and dental procedures for no motive except profit. Then there is the times you do not have coverage between positions and you face the full brunt of US medical and prescription drug costs. At those times I realized how blessed I was to be a Canadian where every man, woman and child was afforded healthcare irregardless of employment or income and prescription drugs cost one sixth of what US pharmacies charged.

Healthcare in Canada is not perfect, but all but a few extreme cases cannot be served by our system. Americans should not be swayed by the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance industry or the medical professionals. The US is the only game in town; the US people can set the terms. You will also get doctors and nurses who love the job more than money.

One tier universal healthcare. The US has the chance to show the rest of the world how to do it right.

"One tier" health care does not work in other countries and won't be what works here. Both the UK/E.U. and soon (I take it from the lawsuits going on there over this) in Canada there exist secondary markets for people to pay for concierge service in countries with socialized medicine.

We're clearly going to end up with a system that allows that with means to have different access to certain resources and hospitals and doctors will scramble to attract those patients. I'm ok with that as a baseline coverage is more important for the social system then arguing over whether it's "fair" for some people to have more equal access then others.

There are sleazy folk in all industries, please remember to point the finger at the individual and not generalize. Similarly, we could say the following about IT:

The mission of every IT professional is to sell you faulty software that doesn't meet your needs, charge you for the bugfix after making you wait, and extort you when you want to stop using their product.

Paying MD's and RN's less money won't get them to somehow "love their job" - you'll get them to quit and do something more profitable. MD training is inarguably the most difficult of any profession, and pay reflects that. If you propose to cut MD profits, MD's will simply move into biomedical engineering startups. Smart people will have good jobs earning good pay, regardless of what that field is. I want RN's who are paid higher than most other jobs - they're motivated to be there simply because they're getting paid better. If being a teacher paid more, nurses would quit and start teaching. Also, you clearly haven't talked to any nurses -- it's just a job, paying them less will motivate them less. Good luck getting them to take OT shifts if you're lowering the base rate. Have you looked into the cost of agency nurses lately?

One tier health care doesn't work in Canada, and it won't work in the US.

I, too was born in Canada, and I just adore it when Americans - who can't keep their babies from dying more than they should, and routinely deny people cancer treatment - maunder on about how it's better in the U.S. because the hospitals that people are denied treatment in are shinier.

I have had to have six knee surgeries. My American insurance would not have paid for the two crucial ones that allow me to actually walk up a flight of stairs at the age of 28(I had patellar femoral syndrome, basically crookedy knees - born with it). Here's how they happened:

I asked my doctor for a referral to a specific orthopedic surgeon (He used to be the surgeon for the Ottawa Roughriders). My doctor faxed my name to the surgeon's office, I had an appointment within three days. This was in August. In December (I chose the date, why waste summer weather recuperating?), I had the surgery.

Winter before last, my in-laws were out-of-of province when they discovered, after going to a doctor who never asked one question about money (no need), that she might have bowel cancer. The biopsy happened within a week, within three days, she had major surgery. She was hospitalized for about three weeks, treated well, and is receiving excellent care at home, because the surgeon happily sent all of the documentation home with her.

Compare that to an oncologist in Dallas who sees his uninsured patients twice. Once when they come into the Emergency Room in agony and he operates, and then when they're in Intensive Care, dying of the cancer that could have been cured if they had been allowed to have chemotherapy.

I have a lot of friends a family who are Canadian - they hate it compared to the US system and in fact MOST of the time come here for operations and surgeries.

Abuse of the system and long waits are frequently the stated reason for their dislike of it.

I cannot argue one way or the other as I am not Canadian, but I also get top notch medical care per my company's health plan - despite the Liberal claim to the contrary good plans exist all over the corporate world.

Wow a lot of friends and family and they all travel to the US for operations and surgeries. Of course cosmetic procedures such as breast enhancements penis lengthening and scrotal botox are not covered under the Canadian system I'm assuming those are the kind of procedures you are reffering to.

Your friends and family go to the US for operations "most of the time"? I call shenanigans. I got surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome within weeks of diagnosis, and my mother had cancer surgery within days. There are *some* procedures that have long waiting lists, which is unacceptable - but a problem that can be solved if the political will exists to do it. I would rather have a health care system I can influence by voting for parties that have a plan to fund it properly than one where access to care is based on income. And I have never paid as much in taxes as my self-employed US relatives pay in health care premiums.

As for "abuse of the system," I have *never* heard a Canadian of any political stripe make this complaint. My physician sister complains that people go to the ER for non-urgent problems, but it's my understanding that this happens in the US as well.

Well you can argue from your experience, I can't refute that, but you certainly can't refute the anecdotes. I wouldnt' expect you to agree, you have your opinion, they have theirs and they don't agree with you. That said, I never would imply that the Canadian system is wrong, bad, or worse, but rather there are two sides to the glossy sheen being painted on the other systems.

The crux of what I hear comes from what you have outlined, although I hear it told as a much worse problem. That yes, waiting times can be very long, that the ER is populated by people with trivial issues or colds. Is it catastrophic - no, but a lot of what you disagree with about the US system is not as bad as you believe. My mother had cancer treatment here in the US in a very timely fashion, and paid very little for it. So if the system were as paralyzed as you would have me believe that wouldn't have been possible. I think a little honesty about all systems needs to be put forth, else this will/has turned into a battle between the Liberals and everyone else.

Having worked in healthcare for about 25 years, I would be the first to agree that lots of unnecessary tests and procedures are done. I would disagree that they are all done due to the profit motive. I have no doubt some are, but in many cases a battery of tests will be run to rule out possible causes of a symptom (even though the odds of those causes are quite remote) so as to reduce the likelihood of litigation if the diagnosing physician makes a mistake.