Just to put a different light on this, we all have basically been comparing the US system to mostly Canada but also the UK and Australia. Commonwealth countries. I have a good friend who's from Paris and we had this discussion a few years ago and since I lived in Canada for 12 years, I started making the same points we've been talking about here. He told me that's all wrong when it comes to France, that the French system is much better than either the US or Canadian models and he told me to look it up. I thought he was just being a nationalist but I did look it up, there's several websites that compare the health care systems worldwide and you know what? He's right. The French system is not the Canadian or English ones. I can't go into all the details but the main point is it's a combination public and private system and I'm struck by the fact that that is sort of what Obama is talking about now. Conservatives love making fun of the French and if it were to be announced that it's the French system being used as a model, Limbaugh, Hannity et al would have an absolute field day. It's entirely possible that Obama may be looking at the French system but is not saying so. Some of you may want to check this out, I found it very surprising because nobody mentions France, it's always England or Canada that are held up as poster children for the wrong way to do it and with apologies to John, both of those countries ranked near the bottom, way behind most of Europe but France was, as my friend said, ranked at the top.
I also enjoyed your dissertation Richard, well done. I tend to land on that side too but still it's not right that some people have to be gutted financially by medical problems through no fault of their own. We can do better but to somehow overhaul an existing system to make the required changes is like Microsoft finally deciding to junk Windows and produce a truly good OS but everybody the world over would have to give up all of their legacy software and hardware to do it and start completely over. Tough choice.

Bob

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