RK>  RK> to make is that it is fallacious to think that only government 
RK> run 
RK>  RK> systems
RK>  RK> such as the Canadian, German, or whatever, are the only ones 
RK> that 
RK>  RK> limit
RK>  RK> health care. HMO's in this country, at times, severely limit 
RK> health 
RK>  RK> care
RK> 
RK>  MS> You're comparing apples and T-bone.  This isn't even comparing
RK>  MS> apples and oranges.
RK>  MS> HMOs aren't monopolies.  Policyholders that don't like the
RK>  MS> rationing are free to spend their own money (at their own cost) 
RK> 
RK> Apparently you can't see the similarity between HMO's and any other 
RK> single
RK> payer systems because of myopia. The point I was trying to make is 
RK> that 
RK> bean
RK> counters and not MD's, no matter where they are located or for whom 
RK> they
RK> are working, are deciding what health care will be provided to  a 
RK> patient.
    You miss the whole damn point. 
    A policyholder in an HMO may have his care limited, but it's 
comparatively inexpensive and easy for him to shop outside the HMO at his own 
expense: he just goes to another doctor in his own town and pays the bill 
himself.  
    A "policyholder" in Sweden's national health care system who wanted to 
avoid the year-long delay for a cataract operation had a much more expensive 
'choice': she flew to the United States (more expensive than driving across 
town).
RK> what will be provided and what will not. I don't know where you are 
RK> getting
RK> your disingenuous information, but it certinly does not jibe with 
RK> what
RK> snowbird Canadians say
    "Snowbird Canadians", like snowbird Americans, are a self-selected sample 
of those rich enough to avoid the downside of the Canadian system by 
traveling to American healthcare facilities if needed to avoid a waiting 
ist.
    Anyone rich enough to have two or more homes is very atypical of 
Canadians (or Americans).  Their life experiences differ from the majority of 
their nation's population.
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
---------------