--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37" <feste37@> wrote: > > > > But your taxes are higher in Canada, I assume. They must > > be, if you have virtually free health care. > > I will chime in here, to point out that you are making > unwarranted assumptions. Re Canada, you are failing to > consider whether the actual *costs* of health care might > not be lower. Which they are. Same in France and Spain > and the Netherlands, all of which I have some experience > with. In France, for example, a one-hour doctor's visit > (assuming no insurance to pay for it, and *not* being a > French resident) costs 30 Euros. > > One of the reasons this is true is that these companies > have not gone down the road that America has for many > decades, allowing greedy hospitals, doctors, HMOs, > insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies to > artificially escalate prices to outrageous levels that > are completely out of accord with what it costs them > to provide their services. No pharmaceutical company > in any of these countries could get away with charging > what American suppliers charge for drugs; the govern- > ments would just step in and refuse to do business > with them unless they lowered their prices. Same with > the doctors themselves, and what they charge. > > In Canada (I know because I lived there for some years), > another factor that keeps their health care costs low > is, strangely enough, differences in the *legal system*. > The Canadian legal system mirrors (or did when I lived > there) the English system, meaning that all services > provided by lawyers are fee-based. Lawyers get paid by > the hour or at a previously-agreed-upon rate for a > common service. There is no such thing as a "continency > fee," whereby lawyers take cases on a speculative basis, > knowing that they'll get 30% of any settlement amount. > > As a result, there has (again, as of when I lived there) > a medical malpractice suit for a fee over a million > dollars in Canada. (In the US, such suits are often for > tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, all fueled by > greedy lawyers hoping for their 30%.) This also tends > to keep costs lower, because doctors don't have to pay > as much for malpractice insurance. > > Finally, but not to be disregarded, having a medical > system in which *preventative* care is free or cheap > has an *immense* effect on reducing overall health care > costs. In the US, where a *huge* percentage of the > population has no health insurance at all, their only > option is to go to an emergency room and hope that they > won't get thrown out. This means NO preventative care, > and thus that conditions that could have been easily > caught and treated inexpensively escalate into serious > diseases that cost a fortune to treat. > > So get over your belief that everyone who lives in a > country with good medical care pays through the nose for > it in taxes. This simply isn't true. That's just what the > greedy bastards who are profiting from your ignorance > want you to believe. >
That's not what I said at all. I don't know why you are responding in such an unpleasant tone to what was a nonconfrontational post on my part. What the fuck is your problem?
