I think I need to move to Idaho out of liberal Western Washington! Too many moving targets here anyway...

Way off topic...

Yep, Shane, this belongs in backlash. Den Otter is a dork. As with the dopey Wyoming law against federal firearms agents, I don't have any use for legislatures that waste taxpayers time and money passing and printing up laws they know can't be enforced.

Too bad none of you guys haven't lived in a country with national health care. Even the most rabid "conservative" up here wouldn't be without it now.

Moishe-
Good post, even though our resident expert on the Constitution to the north does not approve! This, along with the firearms legislation now pending in many states, are just the first of many issues I can foresee as a backlash against obummer and the out of control demoncrat Congress.

The Canadian cars you see in those Maine hospital lots are the wealthy few for the most part. They don't want to wait a few months for their knee replacement and can afford to waste the money to get one done sooner in the States. But for every one of those folks there's a hundred (if not hundreds) more who would not be able to afford a knee replacement (or, in my case, multiple retina surgeries) if we didn't have national health care. There's also a lot of fools that think just because you pay more for something it's got to be better. I call it the Cadillac myth (formerly the Weatherby myth). "There's one born every minute" as W.C. Fields would say.

By the way, have you spent much time in Canada counting the US plates in the parking lots of our pharmacies? I'll bet you almost every diabetic in that Maine border town buys his/her supplies across the border. They're crazy if they don't. Speaking of diabetes, how many health plans (for those who can afford them) will cover the cost of an insulin pump? Zilch! My brother in the US has two but they're on the shelf because 1) he was laid off at the plant and lost his health plan and 2) the drug companies have made it unaffordable. The pump is just too expensive for him to maintain without a health plan. So he is shortening his life using injections instead. But the drug companies are getting rich. That's what's important. Not public health. I don't believe there is a province in Canada now that won't cover an insulin pump and the cost of supplies is regulated. Same brother contracted TB when he WAS working at the plant. The new breed of TB is extremely tough and requires a long treatment of variable anti-biotics and, in Mike's case, chemo. Blue Cross wouldn't cover it because they labeled it "experimental." Well, yeah, that's about all doctors can do with TB these days is experiment till they find what works for the particular strain of infection. He fought Blue Cross for years. Finally it boiled down to the fine print which said they could refuse payment for anything they wanted to without giving any reason. What kind of a health plan is that?

Huh? Tort reform? How is that going to help the guy who gets ripped off by a so-called insurance company who won't pay or plays the delay of game to the point of exhaustion. Which is the cardinal rule of every claims department. So we go get a lawyer at $300 an hour to sue the insurance company to make them pay up. If you don't have the co-payment, deductable, preferred physician, etc., etc. then you're not going to get the treatment you need anyway. So, crm, the alternative would be that the rich folks crossing the border now would get the treatment wherever they wanted and the folks that have to wait now wouldn't get their treatment at all if there wasn't govt health care. And what is good about that alternative? I'm guessing you're one of the wealthy ones lucky enough to be able to afford an insurance plan that is worth something. To heck with those who can't. And what Sunday school taught you that ethic? VA health care is neglected because big business wants it that way. No money for consultations or specialty clinics if the vets can get that service at VA hospitals. If government health care was universal, not just for the veterans, the improvement of care for them would be on par with everyone else. By the way, I have spent a lot of time in military and VA hospitals and I haven't had anything to complain about. But, admitedly, it's been a while.

Talk about nescience! Crm, I am an occassional US govt employee, believe it or not. Once a year in November I am allowed to choose my health plan from up to a dozen that are available. GEHA, Postal Workers, etc., etc. As far as I know, these plans are all offered nation-wide (e.g. GEHA = Govt Employee's Health Administration[?]) across state boundaries. And I also just bought the insurance on our old family home in Montana from my cousin who's a broker in Idaho Falls. That's definitely crossing state boundaries. Anyway, I have the "advantage" of cross-border market place competition when selecting a health plan. What difference did that make? None! Read the fine print on each plan. The only competition is to see what ingenious way they can find to screw you out of your benefits (and the doctors out of payment for their services) and make you pay for the service rather than them. Sorry, but that kind of competition doesn't do anything to benefit my health. Deregulation of such feeble regulations that exist will only make the situation worse. The "competition" will be how to make the service cheaper to the insured and more profitable to the insurance companies and health care providers. Doesn't sound like a recipe for improving the public's accessibility to quality health care. Sounds more like a recipe to increase the benefit paying hassles that health insurance companies are already famous for. If you think it will make things better you are truly nescient. Explain to me again how the "free market" system is working for health care? It's working to make it worse, not better.

One of the problems for most employees is that they are stuck with the plan that the employer or union reps picks for them. We had a usesless very expensive Blue Cross plan at the plant and the union reps blocked us from getting a better one. Gee, I wonder why? Those same union reps, making the same wage I was, owned airplanes, Corvettes, multiple rental units, condos in Hawaii, etc. Hmmm. The guys at the lumber mill down the road had no union and a better plan and much cheaper. The mill was more concerned about keeping the employees healthy (and the union out) than getting kickbacks from the insurance company. Although the plan was "better" and cheaper it still wasn't worth a crap.

Here I walk down to the ER with something bothering my eye. Within hours I'm on a plane to Winnipeg and under the knife. After three separate major surgeries (and six or seven laser surgeries) for three retina detachments, I have 20/40 corrected in that eye. I may be the only guy walking who has had that much work done on a retina and can still hold a US interstate commercial driving license. How much paperwork did I have to fill out? None. How much did I have to pay up front? Nothing. How many endless phone calls did I have to make to fight with insurance companies? None. Did I have to remortgage my home? No! Or, withouot insurance or money, did I have to lose my eye? No! But the sight-saving surgery was performed in a remodeled nunnery, not an architectural edifice. My surgeon's office was a modest 8x8' room, not a walnut paneled lounge with wet bar. He was dedicated to fixing me, not his bank account. He did what no one thought could be done. And he did it under socialized medicine.