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I live in Canada and I can’t imagine why someone would want to live in a country like Canada without hockey or “socialized medicine.”
Okay, you can take the hockey maybe, but our publicly funded medical system, even with its flaws, has done a lot to raise the standard of health and living more or less equally among Canadians.
I don’t have a problem with taxes either, but I don’t like the idea of my contribution being spent on Stephen Harper’s war machine in Afghanistan. That said, I have heard that another reason Costa Rica has money to spend on public health and social problems is that they don’t have a standing military to suck the public purse dry.
While life in Costa Rica sounds very laid back, I would also like to think that enough Ticos are seriously committed to building and sustaining a healthy and egalitarian society where everyone has a voice. I am thinking of visiting Costa Rica next year, for a couple of months if possible to become better acquainted with the people who live there.
If, as a Canadian, you dislike your money being spent on a capitalist war in Afghanistan, imagine how, as an American, I feel about my money going down the same hole when we don’t even have socialized medicine here and probably never will. In my country, it is every man for himself and the women and children and aged and infirmed are left to fend for themselves. This is a cruel and very UNenlightened society. I am not sad to be leaving it for Costa Rica.
I admire the Costa Ricans for their vision of a country without an army, a government dedicated (at least in theory) to the benefit of the common citizen and the welfare of the environment. However poorly the above goals may be executed, they are still worthy goals and represent a sentiment in the people that is absent in the U.S.Unenlightened society? Two sides to every story, such as this good doctor from Canada. This article may enlighten you. “Every man for himself” is called responsibility and freedom.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=270338135202343
Posted in the wrong place and reposted here by Scott
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Posted Jul 28,2007 6:04 PM Aaronbz
Well, Roark, I read the article and I am still unconvinced. Leaving political and economic ideologies aside, first I did mention previously, that our health care system has its flaws and that it is far from perfect. On the other hand, all Canadians, regardless of income have equal access to health care. Having worked and visited in hospitals in the Greater Vancouver area I have not come across any of the nightmare scenarios that were indicated in this article though I do not doubt that these things happen at times. I also understand that there are some physicians and surgeons in Canada who are deeply dissatisfied with public healthcare (I don’t like the word “socialized” as this reflects ideological bias) because they simply are not getting enough money out of it. in conclusion, maybe it helps to accept that no system is going to be perfect and that there are always going to be trade-offs. However, in Canada, we have a high population of working poor and other economically-marginalized citizens who simply would be in dire straits without this equally accessible public health care. While I can appreciate your cant about individual freedom and responsibility, in Canada, as in Costa Rica, we have a long-standing tradition of community responsibility that involves people looking out for one another as well as for their own interests. Thanks for sharing.
And for a real-world model of a “. . . high population of working poor and other economically-marginalized citizens who simply would be (read: “are”) in dire straits without this equally accessible public health care . . .” a Canadian need only look south across the border.
The people of the United States is one of the most generous and charitable countries in the world and has a very “longstanding tradition of community responsibility that involves people looking out for one another” I think taxing people under the guise of “looking out for one another” is wrong. And for someone to think it is wrong does not mean that person is unenlightened as Sprite commented.
The 45 million people without insurance in the U.S. does not mean they don’t have access to healthcare.
“The forty-five million people without health insurance” do, in fact, have a very limited ability to gain access to health care. What’s more, the millions more whose policies provide for very high deductibles and co-pays are constrained only somewhat less.
You are certainly welcome to your philosophical position, but you cannot deny the fact of inaccessiblity for a very substantial portion of the population of the world’s richest country.
If 15% is a substantial portion, your right I can’t deny. But of that 15% many choose not to buy insurance.
Fifteen percent is undeniably a substantial portion of the population.
Follow-up question: You assert that many of those 15% (some 45 million) people choose not to buy health insurance (presumably for other than economic reasons, right). What percent of the fifteen percent make that choice? And . . . Please cite your sources.
Perhaps “unenlightened” is not an accurate description of the american people in regards to health care. It is, after all, the greed of corporations that really controls the direction of everything in the U.S. As for the people, they are probably more accurately described as powerless, apathetic, hypnotized worker bees.
It is sadly funny how we kill ourselves chasing money and material items and then have to spend even more energy working for more money to pay for the insurance we need to protect those items and our deteriorating health. After years of this work frenzy, the U.S.citizen develops heart problems and other ailments brought on by anxiety and bad diet and becomes useless as a worker bee. The corporate interests have no use for these useless bees and won’t spend a nickel to rehabilitate them. Throw-away-workers.
Roark, I have to assume you are in excellent health, make good money and are in complete agreement with the pursuit of material wealth as a means to human happiness.Edited on Jul 29, 2007 16:44
The percent drops subtracting 12 million illegal aliens. You can find some interesting statistics in these articles.
http://info.insure.com/health/analysis.htm
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2007/07/12/moores_sicko_is_sickening
http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2007/20070718153509.aspx
Sprite, I thank God I am in good health. I make enough to pay my bills. I do not “pursue material wealth” especially as a “means to human happiness.”
I will steal from Bob Dylan and say “success is when a man gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between does whatever he wants.”
In America as in Costa Rica you are free to choose to do that. You just have to use your imagination, and not buy into your “worker bee” mentality. Why do you think you have to?
Freedom is an attitude and nothing else. The word is so vague, it is used by everyone to mean whatever they want it to. And, let’s be adult and real about this…nobody does whatever they want to do anywhere. We all have responsibilities that life lays on our laps. Sometimes, we bring them on, other times, SH-T just happens. The trick is to conv ince yourself that you enjoy those responsibilities.
Regarding the millions of americans with little or no health care, they are in an inferior position to the average Costa Rican or the average Cuban citizen in that department.That would be twelve million folks who, illegal aliens or not, are (1)mostly contributing to the economy and (2)just as human as you and me, right?
That would be twelve million folks who, illegal aliens or not, are (1)mostly contributing to the economy and (2)just as human as you and me, right?
What percentage (numbers and sources, please) of those twelve million have the economic means to purchase health insurance but do not, exercising their right of choice?
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