I think they're lying. And I think they know it.

[doucanoe]

Originally Posted by merrylander

So if people are abusing the system they are doing it with the collaboration of doctors and hospitals, it takes two to tango.

When the Conservative party instituted Single Payer in Canada things were in a pretty bad state. Hospitals were hiring nurses from third world countries because they did not want to pay decent salaries. I saw some of this first hand when my Dad died. Things changed for the better afterward, sure some people might go to the doctor with imaginary ailments, hypochondriacs will ever be with us - big deal.

Back around WW II times people whose taxes had built the schools and roads could find themselves at retirement with scarce enough to live on. They could get a pension from the government but the means test said you can't own your own home (typical right wing stupidity take away the home and give them a pension that just covers the rent). Many parents deeded the home over to their children and got the pension. Then in the need for money the children sold the house out from under them. Oh ye generation of vipers.

Finally wiser heads prevailed and the means test was eliminated, replace by income tax well above the value of the pension. Even now if all a person has is the basic pension, a supplement of $635 per month is available.

Oh yes, despite some of the other blatant lies you were told by our estimable senators, Canada has negligable debt.

People are abusing the system because they have been provided the means to do so. The free, unlimited health care for "those in need" in our state (very liberal) was underwritten by state legislature. We have people flocking to our state for handouts or all types because of it. Just a peek at the arrest record for a particular week of the month shows huge spikes in arrests of individuals from Illinois and Indiana for example. These multiple location "residents" show up to pick up their checks and go back home. Also estimated in the multiple millions. The subject gets broached periodically but is quickly swept under the rug. I don't even know where to begin with the medical aspect.

Our state rep. Nora Slawick (DFL district 55B) stopped by the house about three months ago. My wife and I listened quietly as she layed out her story and ask for our support. She got on to the subject of affordable state health care and mention how important it was to be on board with that. I had nothing to add. My wife smiled and told her that she was a RN and saw what was going on, on a daily basis on the state level and wanted to know how we would go about signing up for that program. Nora smiled a nervous smile, thanked us for our time (stepping backward while doing so), turned and walked away. That spoke volumes for me.

"...imaginary ailments, hypochondriacs will ever be with us - big deal."

If that were only the problem. With all due respect Rob, that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

I was watching C-SPAN a while back and listening to some House member pimp the National Health Care bill that was being paraded around at the time. He mentioned that part of the paying for it would be in recovering the 100's of millions in waste and fraud that they were all ready aware of in Medicare/medicare. Recovering??? If this has been apparent common knowledge, why has it not been taken care of already. We are dealing with fools and incompetents. Continuing to put more money and control in their hands is a bit of a concern for me.

RC