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The average wait for an MRI scan stretches almost to half a year, while Americans wait three days.

Three days? The last time I needed an MRI, the only wait I had was due to the person already in the machine when I walked in the door. And that was in 1987, when there were far fewer machines around!

Ditto that!
Last year my Primary Care Physician decided he wanted me to have one....and made a telephone call while I was in his office....

Less that an hour later --- I was in the machine, after taking a preliminary treadmill stress test...

It was NOT a profit generating move --- I belong to an HMO, in addition to having private insurance though my prior employer....

Semper Fi

By 1987, the United States was spending about 11.1 percent of its GNP on health care while Canada was spending only 9 percent. This analysis says that Canada may actually be spending more per capita than the USA, which shows how inefficently a socialistic system allocates resources.

I've watched our Medicaid system help two of my grandkids with serious problems at birth, one with half his heart not formed, the other with a soft traichea. Both cost in excess of $500k, with the parents poor as church mice and no insurance. Both my grandkids, 10 and 2, are 100% normal, healthy kids now. In Canada, they'd probably not have survived.

I've needed my private insurance for major work on both legs over the past 18 months. I've had absolutely excellent service from top specialists. But my grandkids on Medicaid had access to the same quality specialists. That's the genius of our mixed public-private system. Market forces keep service quality high, and the government provides it's aid via the marketplace.

It's an imperfect system, yes--expensive, yes. But we all know family that wouldn't be here but for the top-notch health care system we have in the good ol' USA.