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Canada is a better place to live due to such reasons as healthcare"..he also said Swedan and a few other countries that take better care of their people...

I think the reason this myth is repeated ad nauseum is because of the international measures (such as WHO) used to determine health care quality. One big one is infant mortality. Countries with a socialized system of health care place great emphasis on primary prevention. Therefore, a large chunk of resources goes to prenatal care. Immunizations are another common measure. So is access to care, particularly by minorities and those who fall within official poverty definitions (and of course, in socialized medicine, everyone has equal access - equally bad that is!). Therefore, take the liberal assertions about how bad our health care system is with a grain of salt & remember the plight of the Canadians (it is the same in the UK). I prefer to know that someday, if I ever need it, I can have my cancer operated on without waiting until it has metastized to every part of my body, thank you very much!

I think we'd all be better off admitting, honestly and openly, that both medical systems in Canada and the US are currently experiencing difficultes.

I grew up in Ontario, and am currently living in upper New York state. And from what I've seen in New York State, there are a lot of problems here too.

The city I live recently had to close one of its hospitals due to a lack of funding. One of my cube mates recently spent the better part of a week fighting with his HMO over a bill they said they'd cover, but later reneged on. The local paper recently ran a story about how medical costs are starting to rise again, despite the best efforts of HMO's to contain costs.

And we've all heard the horror stories associated with the HMO's.

Canada's system is also experiencing problems. There are few MRI machines. And as part of a decision to help bring down the deficit, healthcare spending was slashed in Canada during the 1990's.

However, both the US and Canada's problems stem from exactly the same source: an aging population. It is this single factor, more than any other, that is driving up health care costs in Canada and the US. And until both countries come to understand this basic fact, the problems are going to continue.