In my eyes, as long as there are tens of Millions without decent Health Care, the USA...

[BlueJazz]

....will always be a second rate Country.
Having visited many of my European friends this past year, I always marvel at how much money they seem to have for "Fun stuff".
They work hard but they play hard also.
Americans put up with few days off, lousy health coverage, Expensive Health coverage and work more like mindless Ants than people who are glad to be alive.
Americans worry constantly about getting sick and getting broke..
Yeah...my Foreign friends aren't perfect but they (seem to) live much less stressful lives than we do...
They keep asking me to "Join them" and I keep being a fool and fighting a fool's fight and naturally ....with the
candidates we have at the present time, 7 years from now we'll STILL have 30 or 40 million Americans without health care..
..I'm a Fool....and disgusted...but I'll keep fighting.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. But propose that somebody pay a little for it & whamo!

They'd rather go without as long as the emergency doors are open for business.

[Canuckistanian]

2. But they ARE paying for it

It's a well-known, irrefutable, undeniable FACT that single-payer, gov't sponsored health care costs LESS OUT-OF-POCKET than profit-driven health insurance companies.

Why does America insist on paying third parties for crappier health care?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The whole thing would have to be outsourced anyway, like everything else

it would be contracted out. US = profits for somebody.

[supernova]

4. Totally agree with you

Europe, while it has its own set of problems, does very will in the life stress management scale.

You know why Europeans can afford all those overseas vacations they seem to take (even the middle class) to the Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, the Carribean? Because they don't have to pay so much for healthcare, that's why. And they get decent time off in which to enjoy it.

edit: As much as I hate to admit it, I do consider sometimes living over there just for the healthcare alone.

[peace13]

5. You have to add to that the millions who pay through the nose

for health insurance. My husband and I pay over $1200 per month for coverage. How long we can keep that up in this economy is a question. The long term impact this is having on our retirement savings is disastrous. This is a problem that impacts all on so many levels. Peace, Kim