Jim Dandy: Isn't it a bit misleading to say "everybody" pays when in fact everybody doesn't really?

Artful Dodger: You don't pay on a sliding scale like income tax, and you're not stuck paying 30 grand for an MRI for some guy in Montreal.Canadians have just as many issues with our imperfect govt as Americans, or anyone else for that matter, but paying for our healthcare model doesn't even register in the richter scale of gripes.

Jim Dandy: it doesn't register on your gripe scale because you're used to it. We have a government out of control, huge spending and arrogant representatives. Plus our media is corrupt (except for Fox) and they almost always favor the liberal view. (despite your objections to Fox, they always have both sides of an argument presented. Even Hannity has a couple of liberal guests in each and every program. Interestingly, they couldn't be further apart on their views but they are friends too).

Artful Dodger: ... Is that meant to mean anything?? All our major news channels over here include on a current event show, people of different views.

Jim Dandy: One other thing (off the top of my bald head), it seems to me that it doesn't matter if what your posts says is true or not, it's still not up to the government to decide for me how I should live my life and where (and how) I should spend my money. As for the conclusion of that study, I'd have to look into it. I'm not sure there is any correlation between the health-care and the added longevity. As you know, there are likely many contributing factors.

Jim Dandy: but don't forget the end of the article:

"They are probably right about the health-care system playing a role in this," he said. But there are many socioeconomic factors that may contribute to differences in life-expectancy and quality of life, including a higher prevalence of violence and unhealthier, poorer immigrant populations south of the border.

"We don't really know how to parse out the differences between Canada and the U.S. into better access to health care and less brutalizing social environment for some parts of the population," he said from Vancouver.

"So it's not clear to me that the adoption of a Canadian-style system, even if they could do it" would make a difference, said Evans, noting that eliminating third-party private insurers from the U.S. health-care mix would present a monumental challenge.

"Is Obama-care going to cure it? No. You're on the start of a long road down there. It's in the right direction, it will certainly help some people a lot, but ... is the U.S. health status disadvantage going to disappear in the next four or five years? I would bet against it."