Actually re the comment above about socialised medicine, and yes, I'm going right off topic here. But please bear with me. I've just made 100 posts and am celebrating becoming an Enthusiast!

While travelling in the States in '97 I remember chatting with a taxi driver in Indianapolis. His mood was good until we happened to talk around the subject of medical care and its cost in your country. Seems his nephew had leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. I was shocked to hear that it was going to cost
$100,000 US and one of his immediate family would have to sell their house to fund this (I presume because the family had no medical insurance). No guarantee that it alone would do the trick, mind you. I'm sure there was a heap more expensive treatment besides.

Although here in Australia we don't have socialism as such, a federal government of a mildly leftish persuasion (think Democrats or European labour parties) had actually instituted universal health insurance back in the mid 1970's and it persists in a largely unchanged form, despite many changes of government since. You can still buy additional health coverage if you wish which entitles you to choice of doc and maybe choice of hospital. But if you go public, as I do, (and I might add I've worked in public hospitals for 28 years), you will almost certainly get world standard health care for no more than your regular income taxes. If you make the average full time adult income of about $50-60,000 dollars a year, those taxes will be about 15-17% of that gross. Not a huge impost, I would have thought.

Now, Australia is a prosperous and well off country by most economic indicies. But the U.S.A. is more prosperous. Last I saw the stats it remained the richest country in the world most any way you analyse it.
I'm not a red ragger, that is, a leftist sympathiser or activist. Not at all. In fact I detest the Godless humanism
I see sweeping into Western societies all over the world. But I sincerely reccommend to you that if universal health coverage is achievable and affordable in my country it surely is in yours.

The above has been brought home to me all the more, with thanks to God that I live here, by the illness of my cousin's son this last 12 months- an acute myeloid leukaemia of a particularly nasty type (Philadelphia chromosomes). This in a strapping 22 year old extremely athletic basketballer. He has needed every far out and funky medical treatment and procedure I know of in Oncology and then some. BMT's, spinal taps aplenty, stem cell transplant(s), induced graft versus host disease, chemo after chemo after etc etc.

So- socialism- no. But Medicare (as UHC is known here)- absoloutely. And thank God for it. Try it. I guarantee that after you adjust to the idea you'll like it.

In any case, stay well.

John