Universal Healthcare...good idea, right?

Right now the folks up in DC are pushing around ideas about the current hot topic: Healthcare Reform. President Obama seems pretty dead set on doing something... but he's kind of reminding me of a certain Toyota Prius Hybrid. Im all for IMPROVING our healthcare system, but I am scared to death about what Universal Healthcare WILL do to us if we let it pass. Someone needs to at least tap the breaks...

I want to explain what Government run healthcare is in plain terms just so that we can all see what this type of system means.

If the government ran the system... doctors would have to request permission to treat each patient from a politician who will probably be hundreds of miles away. Yep, a politician will tell the doctor if treatment is really needed. And you know how we always hear the sad story about the mean old insurance company that denied some needed service, guess who the #1 Denier of healthcare services is: Medicare. The government turns down almost 50% of its claims...this is way more than anyones insurance.

Next, now that the government is paying for everyones healthcare, which will cost about 100Billion/year they will have to work to stay in budget. In Canada, where this system is in place, the government did this by decreasing the number of doctors and closing MRI and other imaging centers on weekends and the holidays (when do most accidents occur again?). Can you imagine breaking an arm, having a relapse of cancer, having an appendix burst etc over the weekend or the holidays? its a nightmare.

did you catch that? by decreasing the number of doctors, they are making healthcare less available. Even though everyone *has* health insurance, they dont want you to use it because it will cost them money! In some areas in Canada there is only 1 radiologist in 500 miles, serving almost 100,000 people...100,000!

As youll see in the video, the average wait time in Canada for an MRI is 13 months! CT scan 7 months! To even see a specialist, 17 weeks! To even see a specialist, you need to have a referral from your family doctor. The average wait time to get a family doctor in Canada right now...are you ready?...5 YEARS!

**this is the exact system that Democrats are trying to ram through the legislature right now. And Canada has only 30million people, while the US has over 300million** think of the congestion WE will see with 300million people all trying to get their cough or sniffle checked out because its free.

I could go on and on, but I dont want to bore anyone...so just check out this video. The full thing is 20 min, so if you dont have the time, watch for 5 min from min 10 to min 15 or so...it shows actual Canadians telling you how it is in their real life (and yes, the guys are a bit wacko, but if you can get past that the point they make is a good one):

To finish up my post here I want to make a final point. Does our current healthcare system need improvements? Most definitely! But this would be making things much worse. We need more doctors, which would drive the costs down, and HSAs which gives each person the power to choose what they need and the incentive not to be frivolous.