That high moral ground Canadians have been prancing around on lo these many years can't be propped up any more. It's crumbling so fast even duct tape isn't doing it any more. What with their numbers in the global warming race going up instead of down despite their signature on the Kyoto Treaty and getting caught with their hands in Kofi's oil for food till and now their trademark national healthcare system exposed for the fraud it is, I wonder just how long it'll be before they stop fooling themselves.

Hip & knee replacements should be available within 10 months! How long is the wait now, for goodness sake?

So your national defense plan is to travel to the US in the event of invasion?

This idea of paying for US health care is unlikely to be more than a way-station to a two-tier system. It won't make much sense that independent US doctors but not independent Canadian doctors can be paid by the national health system.

in my lifetime, canada has moved from being invisible to being a total joke. not sure if that is progress. still, it makes me grateful i don't live there.

Saying they will cover travel costs is a coded message to Ontario. Half the province spends a couple of winter months in Florida anyhow, and this way they can get the rest of Canada to pay for their trip while getting all those little problems fixed, shortening the lines for those back in the snow. Not only that, but they won't have to return as often to get their "free health care" or fill out as manay forms. What's not to like? Everybody wins!

With a few more proposals like this, ("What the Conservatives are going to give away, but with even more freebies!") the Libs will have a majority gov't easy. But making sure the entire gov't happens to be south of the border on the day the bill comes due (or the indictments are handed down) is going to be a bit tricky, but something tells me they'll find a way.

Maybe we could have a book pool for guessing when Canada and Cuba become economic equals? The Beard is 79, and seems to have a few more years left, but I'd say about a year after his death things will be sharply up, so put in 2011 for me.

Actually, this could be a boon for doctors and small community hospitals in the US that are just across the border - and for towns in upstate NY, northern MI, MN, ND, MT, ID, and WA. It doesn't all have to be in FL, although there could be doctors and hospitals that are available only from November 1 until May 1 down there.

And if Harper agreed to waive every regulation, the US could export doctors and mobile hospitals. I'll bet they could make quite a "killing" with every service short of major surgery.

I'm no fan of taxes, but I can't help wondering... could the U.S. impose some kind of duty on medical services sold to Canadians?

What is the big deal? Most of us live within 10 miles of the border. This is the competition the medical system needs here in Canada. The nurses have shitty attitudes and the doctors are criticized for having too many patients.

Public health care is not a bad thing. What is bad is having no competition within the system and disallowing private involvement. Taiwan very successfully buys private insurance for all its citizens.

Guy T. -- how would that make any sense (other than being an idiot's joy?) Your doctors are paying income tax in the U.S. and this will get more use out of your underutilized equipment.

Many years I predicted that there would be hospitals on the U.S. side of the border with doors opening directly into Canada. "Duty-Free" health care was what I called it.

Just make sure they pay in US dollars, not that Canadian stuff.

Can manifest destiny be extended to the few million benighted souls living on the northern fringes of the great lakes?

erp - the frasier institute has the wait times, IIRC.

I think Pj has it right and that Canadians will eventually stumble into the right direction out of necessity rather than principle. That is very typical. Contrary to the impression of many around here, Canada's public finances are in great shape and social services have been cut back steadily for a decade almost everywhere, but nobody ever made a Reagan or Thatcher-like speech about it, and most people hardly noticed. Everybody just says: "Oh, yeah, we'd love to extend benefits all over the place, but we can't afford it. Gotta tighten up to keep up with the Yanks. Pity." That attitude is what Orrin misses when he lumps us in with the Euros because he pays too much attention to the Euro-rhetoric and not enough to Anglosphere-actions.

But, what a hoot on both sides here. We look incredibly stupid without realizing it by swearing eternal fealty to socialized medecine, but only on the condition the government pays for us to go to the States (or India?) when matters get really serious. OTOH, with the exception of jim, all you fervant free marketers seem to feel we're cheating you somehow and sucking out some of your natural bodily fluids. Do you feel that way when we buy your computers and clothes?

Raoul:

SighAnother vicious shot at poor, misunderstood Ontario. Have you checked out the populations of Western snowbirds in Hawaii and Arizona? Or do you assume those pure and moral Westerners all choose to brave the blizzards like real men?

Peter B:

Well, you are freeriding on American drug R&D, which isn't the case with computers and clothing.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at December 4, 2005 8:23 AM

Randall,

Of course competition is what's needed to bring out the best in any endeavor, but how can there be free competition within a sclerotic system of rules and regs coming from a centralized bureaucracy?

During the Katrina aftermath, we learned of the existence of mobile medical/surgical units complete with everything needed to do advanced procedures. Perhaps they could be deployed in the part of Canada that wishes to become American. Give them a taste of what it's like to take matters into their own hands and not depend on the state to tell them what's good for them.

I was speaking from the experience of a few visits to central Florida, and of family members who live there. Yes. I know the Westerners spend too much time in places like Hawaii instead of suffering the glorious weather of their homeland. (Like one of the Premiers of B.C. who got the DUI on Maui. Can't remeber which one, there was quite a succession of them for a while.)

But they aren't the votes that are up for grabs, as you yourself have pointed out. All those Albertans in Tucson aren't going to suddenly switch to the Libs over this, are they? (And you betcha they'll use it no matter who passes it.)

all you fervant free marketers seem to feel we're cheating you somehow and sucking out some of your natural bodily fluids.

Depends on how you implement this. If on the one hand the Canadian government were willing to pay us cash money, no problem. However I happen to know the true story: they're going to give you your free airline tickets, and then you're going to come down here and go to the nearest emergency room, using a false name like Bob Mckenzie or Pierre Trudeau so as to avoid having to pay. So yeah, you're basically all just a buch of pasty-white bodily fluid suckers.

Joe:

I wouldn't worry too much. The last time I tried that I signed in as Pamela Anderson, but Homeland Security picked me up right away.