Liev Schreiber

I agree with you.We need to wake up here and get the job done.

'' I don't have a problem with Moore's style if the intention is good"----- Really? Even if his "style" is based on lies, deceit, and cherry-picked half truths! I guess you have to live in fantasy land or Hollywood to truly appreciate a life of lies and fiction which is what Moore's "films" are all about, but than again I could be wrong.......maybe Cuba does have superior health care to the USA.

As a Canadian who has now lived fulltime in the USA for almost 20 years I can speak with firsthand experience when I attest to the fact that I have never (never being a HUGE word) received better and more attentive and safe healthcare than I received in Canada and that includes giving birth via C-Section twice. When I read and hear comments such as the above 'haypype' writes it angers and frustrates me however I realize that the FOX news networks and so many others have done such a convincing job of using scare tactics at their best to convince masses of people to truly believe that universal healthcare would be a bad thing.....clearly these same people have never been in a hospital in Canada (I can only speak for Canada) as I could never imagine them writing the things they do had they had first hand experience. So, Moore's SICKO was NOT based on lies and deceit HOWEVER as recently as last night mostly everything that Limbaugh DID say re Universal health care WAS based on lies and ceit to the American people and he is cheating himself and generations to come in the long run. There is a very good reason that Canadians are so well liked around the world.......perhaps if many of the same people who think that Canada is this socialist Universal Health Care country where no one has freedoms, perhaps if these people stepped out of their miniscule comfort zones of pure tunnel vision and crossed the border to experience how the other side lives, just maybe this discussion might be more reasonable. However, I'm thinking they won't and that the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity and that other guy O'Reilly will continue to inflict more and more fear upon these very people as more and more people begin to see through their motives, which is, that the USA is a better place when people don't ask questions and stay in their little boxes and listen only to the great white man who knows best because that is what America is supposed to be like, according to them. Watch SICKO if you haven't and see how others are treated. Or just go to Canada, you'll like it.

Go back to North Korea, you commie!

You got my vote Liev... and the 2 @ss-hat, reactionary knee-jerk comments above do more to support your view than disable it.

It's clear from some comments that "mental" health reform is sorely needed as well.

Granted the cost of healthcare in the U.S. is an outrage.
One reason is the obesity in this country which
affects cost. Another is the obscene price of a cold pill, etc.

Although the cost in this country is through the roof,
is it true the waiting time for treatment is fairly
prompt in the U.S. compared to countries with government
run healthcare? Or is that a myth?

Are there any Canadiens or Brits who can address
the health care systems in your countries, respectively?

Are there long waiting periods for routine care,
or is that a myth?

Is the heath care in your countries rationed,
in other words the government decides
who gets care FIRST based on condition, age, etc.?
Or is that a myth as well?

The point is, there should be a base level service for everyone, like the NHS. I've lived in the UK all my life, and have relied on the NHS for all of it. From routine doctor's appointments to counselling to emergency hospital visits.

Of course we have private health care here too, for those who wish to use it, but for those who don't, or cannot afford to, the National Health Service is there to see that people are cared for. Naturally it isn't perfect - little is, but the intention is the important thing - see that nobody is untreated, and that means at any hospital, not a selected few that have permission to treat people without insurance.

In England, if you have an emergency, say you're hit by a car, are attacked or have an accident, you can make your way to the nearest hospital and you'll be treated without the worry about cost or insurance, and whether you live here or not. To me that seems like a basic service that human beings should provide for one another.

Fine, lets have private health care for those who want it, but lets also have a basic universal system for everyone who doesn't or can't afford it.

That the U.S. is still debating whether everyone should have health care is as stupid as if we were still debating whether men should wear their penises outside their pants. It is obvious that it is in everyone's interests to have everyone covered. And we are one disease epidemic away from learning this lesson the hard way.

Something ought be done
but
see
don't tell anyone
but I have a step-brother who likes Motocross

He's broken bones on 11 separate occasions
I really don't want to encourage that type of behavior

And, even worse
more than half of all health care in America
is spent on people with less than 9 months to live

Are we all going to be on the hook for every single medical advance
that might extend someone's life a week or two?

That said,
even the worst rich person (probably an inheritor)
has an interest to make sure their cooks, maids and chauffeurs
don't have any communicable diseases
like a new Typhoid Mary

Even AIDS

Even if they haven't crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is of their immigration paperwork.

Didn't know you were into this stuff, Liev, best of luck with it.