...and we'll probably still win hockey.

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. And there’s still a better-than-average chance we’ll medal in hockey. What are the chances of a public health care option in the States?

“Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”

Oh Sarah. You’re so lame. Such a shill. And you clearly didn’t see our spiffy infographic.

Can you imagine this woman as leader of the free world? Do you realize just how close she came to being that? Does anyone else see the irony that SARAH PALIN who famously couldn’t name a single book or magazine or newspaper that she reads, wrote a book? Or at least had some pen-for-hire listen to her crazy rantings about Jesus, real America and Freedom – and organize it into sentences and pages?

From Yahoo News

Read Lang’s whole article here.

Need we say more?

It’s hard to sit up here in Canada, addicted to American cable news as we are, watching the US health care reform debate play out. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the insurance industry has deployed a well-financed campaign of misinformation, obfuscation and doubt to put the fear of god (or in this case, Obama) into all those angry gun-totin’, real Americans – most of whom are probably un- or under-insured. I mean, from this vantage point, you can practically feel the US insurance industry pressing their boots deeper into the throats of sick Americans, grabbing at their patient’s increasingly thin wallets while their victims call the guy who’s trying to save them a traitor and a nazi.

But what really grinds our gears here at CIB is the slander that is being flung at the Canadian health care system by lackies and shills and this nutbar.  Not only does our beloved Canadian health care system manage to keep Canadians living healthier and longer than the corrupt American system, but it costs about half as much per person than the yankee system to do so. And we love it – 85% of Canadians are satisfied with their system. And no Canadians ever go broke for getting sick. Ever.

For the benefit of our confused American brothers and sisters, Canada is Better is pleased to present our humble offering to the health care debate – a simple infographic which we hope will enlighten anti-reformers (read FoxNews viewers) on the folly of their ways. Put down the assault rifle and give it a read. And here’s a PDF version in case you want to print it out for your weaker, ailing friends.

An oil painting of Canadians Banting and Best discovering insulin. So - chow down America!

Chew on this, Rick -

“Here are the facts as to why Canada’s medical system, far from perfect, is dramatically better than America’s:

1. It is cheaper even though it takes care of the entire population, or 10% of GDP compared with 15% in the U.S.
2. Canada’s health care system which fully looks after 32 million people costs roughly what the private-sector health insurance companies make in profits in the United States looking after less than half the population for excessive premiums.
3. Canada’s health care system is cheaper still if the litigation costs of fighting over medical bills is eliminated as it is when the government is the sole-insurer. Estimates are that court costs and judgments add another 2 to 3% of GDP to the total medical tab.
4. Canada’s health care system enhances economic productivity. Workers diagnosed with illnesses can still change employers and be employable because they are not rejected by employers with health benefits due to pre-conditions.
5. Infant mortality is much lower in Canada and Europe than in the U.S.
6. Outcomes with major illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, are better than in the United States.
7. Longevity is better in Canada and Europe than in the U.S.
8. No emergency is neglected in Canada.
9. Some elective procedures may take longer if compared to blue-ribbon U.S. health care but that’s not comparing apples with apples. More appropriately, the overall population’s care should be compared and there are tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or uninsured.
10. No one in Canada goes broke because of medical bills whereas ARP estimates half of personal bankruptcies are due to unpaid, high medical bills.
11. Canadians are able to choose their own physicians and to seek multiple opinions.
12. Canadian doctors and nurses are better trained than American counterparts and U.S. physicians must study for at least a year in order to qualify to practice in Canada.
13. Drugs made and invented in the United States are cheaper in Canada, Europe and Japan because our communal health care means volume discounts and savings passed along to society. Americans are overpaying.
14. Americans are being cheated by a patchwork quilt system where the highest risk people “veterans, the indigent and elderly” are insured by governments but the “gravy” or young, healthy people are handed over to private insurance companies.

Is Canada’s system perfect? No and nobody said it was. Networks should stop allowing propagandists to tell lies and any arguments about other countries’ practices should be ignored as totally irrelevant.”

And one more for you…

In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in the U.S. was US$6,714; in Canada, US$3,678. (wikipedia)

Why don’t Americans understand that giving all their health care money to insurance companies is flawed? Really – what is it about that plain-as-day truth that is so problematic for Americans? If insurance companies are getting rich, and your collective health is declining – you need a new system. When your health is in jeopardy, just how much consumer choice do you really need?

And Republicans, quit lying about our system. Canadian health care works.