Replying to a message of JIM WELLER to BOB ACKLEY:

 JW>> Some Hamilton philanthropists booked her as a headliner for
 JW>> a gala dinner which is a fundraiser for charity. A cancer
 JW>> clinic and a hospital refused donations from the gala after
 JW>> getting really angry feedback from their other sponsors and
 JW>> donors due to her being such a strident critic of public
 JW>> health care.

 BA>> Public health care in general

 JW> Public health care in general including Canada's
 JW> specifically, although the bulk of her wrath was aimed at
 JW> Obama.

 JW> Once again she was caught out by a political satire comedian
 JW> posing as a politician or serious journalist and shot her
 JW> mouth off in an embarrassing way.

 BA>> or the proposed government destruction
 BA>> of the US health care system?

 JW> I honestly don't know enough of your proposed plan to
 JW> comment but I gather that the plan you are about to get is
 JW> a political compromise and not what was originally
 JW> envisioned.

 BA>> There's a place for public health - at the county level.

 JW> In my strictly personal opinion it should be federally
 JW> funded but locally delivered. Poor counties and even
 JW> states/provinces can't handle the load on their own.

The county public health office here offers limited general
services at reasonable prices.  I can get immunizations there
for a nominal fee, and they do sponsor occasional clinics in
the outlying towns for those who can't or don't wish to travel
the 20+ miles to their office in Glenwood.

In the US there are *many* publicly owned free standing
hospitals.  Generally, they are operated by a 'hospital authority'
at the county level.  That authority has the power to tax and that
tax appears as a line item on the property tax statements in that
authority's service area.

Most of the hospitals in this country, however, are privately owned -
and the overwhelming majority of those are owned by a religious
group, and the majority of those happen to be Catholic (others include
Lutheran, Methodist and Jewish).  Next in line in terms of numbers
are hospitals run by (usually state government owned) colleges and/or
universities, and are affiliated with the respective institutions' medical
schools.  A tiny minority of the hospitals in this country are 'investor
owned' - IOW 'for profit' operations; these are the ones that seem to get
all the bad press, although their rates/charges are comparable to similar
institutions run by government or religious organizations.

I note that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of medical research
or development of new methods and procedures in any of those 'industrialized
countries' that have 'universal' health care.  Seems to be the same thing in
the pharmaceutical industry, development of new drugs and treatment doesn't
seem to be being done in countries where the prices of drugs are government
controlled.

What's going to happen in the US is that the congress will pass its health
care reform abomination, and the executive will sign it.  Within ten years
there will be no privately run hospitals in this country, and there will be
a significant shortage of physicians and other medical personnel.  Medical
research will grind to a near standstill, as will development of pharmaceuticals.
There will be a massive decline in the quantity and quality of medical care
available, with long waiting lines for all significant procedures.

As I've noted, providers have for several years been quietly dropping out of the
US Medicare system.  Some providers no longer deal with the government plans
or with insurance companies at all; with them it's cash, check or credit card -
and payment due within 30 days of treatment (their rates seem to be lower, too).
For at least a decade physicians in this country have been advising their 
children to *not* go into the medical care field - because of the hassles involved
in dealing with insurors and the government, and some physicians who can afford
to do so have either retired or found another line of work.

We may see the opening of new, well equipped hospitals on the Mexican side of
the US border and in some Caribbean countries.  These hospitals will cater to US
citizens and will operate on a cash, check or credit card basis only; no insurors,
no (US) government regulation or interference.  If the host governments in those
countries are smart they'll leave the operations strictly alone and simply collect
tax revenue from them; if the owners of those facilities are smart they'll provide
good care to the citizens of those host countries at very nominal costs.

US citizens are already travelling to other countries for medical care, usually

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