Wanted to add an observation to my previous post #18. Another common line being spewed forth by US private insurance Giants, and being disseminated rabidly by their lobby is the supposed "long wait times" and "sub-standard" care being delivered through the government-funded systems in the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, etc.

OK. For those of you buying into this (or disseminating it further), do any of you actually have friends and acquaintances in these countries?? Have you spoken to any of them to find out how true this is? Do yourselves a favor, and instead of listening to fat, greedy US insurance execs spewing venom from their "denial-of-coverage" pedestal, go out and speak to our NATO-allied brethren to get their take on it.

I can tell you I have spoken at length to friends and family in Australia and the UK. They are extremely satisified with both the quality and timeliness of the care they receive from their physicians. I don't claim this to be a true scientific survey. Obviously this is just empirical. But a buddy of mine in Australia had a serious medical issue and he was NOT waiting around for a year like the US Health industry would have you believe. It was taken care of very quickly, professionally, and without a million pieces of paper clutter arriving in his mailbox from hospitals, collection agencies, labs, EOBs, bills, etc.

Now granted: If you want an elective procedure to take care of that bunion your hot model girlfriend can't look at anymore, no way the UK or Australia is going to remove it the very next day. Yes, you are going to need to wait longer than in the US. So THIS is the GOP's justification for poo-pooing the supposed "socialized" medicine our friends are enjoying in Canada, UK, and elsewhere?? Are you friggin' kidding me?

Or heck, if you don't feel like ringing up a large phone bill talking to your long-lost cousin from the UK, let's just ask our NATO buddies here on the forum how they feel about their "socialized", long-wait-time, sub-standard medical care? All comments from Canada, Australia, UK, etc. are welcome. Tell us Amercians how disgusted you are with the quality and/or timeliness of your procedures and diagnostics. What, exactly, do you feel you are missing out on? Tell us how neglected you feel, and tell us how this is all just a slippery slope to Communism. Because you know, one day the government funds your angioplasty, and then the next day we're in Stalin land.