If a Democrat is elected and socialized medicine is enacted, how many Canadians will die?

Health care in Canada is run by the provinces. Ontario seems to be the worst where they approve sex change operations but not pay for cancers like this lady. My wife and I have no problems here in B.C., and neither does my sister and her family in Alberta. But we eat healthy, walk five miles a day, don't smoke, etc.

Snide comments about socialized health care are not really productive because health care is the most logical and moral government service there is. Health care used to be the domain of the church, attracting a lot of voluntary work. The problem we have in Canada is far too little private involvement and very little choice.

What we need to do, both in Canada and the U.S., is provide free health care from pregnancy through schooling. This encourages family. The rest of the time, we should be able to save if we don't use the services (encouraging self-rationing) -- and these savings should be inherited to our children. This also encourages family.

To continue our status as a charitable society, we must also cover the costs of children born with handicaps and illnesses throughout their lives.

The big question will be, of course, at what point do we say no? Our grandmothers used a cane. Today they have hip replacements. We extend our lives by a few months with 100,000 dollar operations, etc. Gays are encouraged to be "free" and then we pay a million dollars to keep them alive for the last year of their life.

But certain costs must be borne by a moral society, and this includes caring for the sick and the needy.

Now if we would like to read about an interesting health care system. . .
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:lJqQD-df1aEJ:www.euro.who.int/document/e72467.pdf+%22Health+care%22+AND+%22Latvia%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

The history of health care in LATVIA provides an illustration of the problems of progressing out of the damage done by years of socialism.

Look at all the problems in Latvia: tuberculosis, aids, alcoholism; all symptoms of a spiritual vacuum.

The main problem we have in Canada, especially in rural areas, is that not everyone can find a general practitioner. This problem can never be solved by market forces because being the lone doctor in a rural area means being on call 24/7.

There is a difference between socialism born of Christian impulse and that of atheist impulse. The socialist movement in Canada was begun by a minister in Saskatchewan, later to be taken over by the government unions. When that happened, the Christians largely moved to the Conservative party, which is the only party in Canada that has consistent Christian leadership. (The Liberal party is always lawyers and the NDP is always union bosses!)

I think this may also be the case with Sweden, which was a heterogeneous, Lutheran society, with all of the social benefits that provides.

I meant homogeneous, of course.

But when a "Christian impulse" entangles itself with lo Stato, it surrenders to the state, taking a thing of God and making it a thing of Caesar.

This is exactly what has become of public education n the United State.

Let us honor William F. Buckley's memory by continuing to resist every encroachment, every usurpation, every expropriation.

The point of public education is to serve the republic by creating good citizens. It succeeds admirably at that purpose though it can, of course, be improved.

Nearly all the problems with the content of public education derive from the false notion, afflicting the Right as much as the Left, that it should "educate" children.

What Lou said.

Randall, congratulations on your healthy life style, but even that doesn't insure that you won't at some time in the future fall victim to the ills of age. Boomers will be learning that lesson en masse any day now. That's when breakthroughs in medicine will really zoom.

Saying that your granny used a cane, but now we geezers want hip replacements, is pretty much the same as saying that in the past old folks lived in pain or conveniently died at a young age without demanding expensive medical care.

Get back to me about that when you find out that your [insert type] cancer was easily zapped because with modern scans it was caught before it could do too much damage or that your eye sight or your heart beat was saved through modern surgery or ...

Randall,

You can wrap your justifications for socialized medicine in as much compassion as you like, but in the end and after public sector unions have settled into socialized medice, you will have the same thing we get from socialized education, - poor performance at high cost and lots of stagnation.

Oj, leftists arn't good citizens.

If the problem is government unions, then shut down the unions, don't allow the insurance companies to convince people they need to see a doctor for a bump on the knee! Remember, they get a percentage.

And, of course, no one came up with a solution to the real problem: a lack of General Practioners in rural areas.

My wife has a 109 year old aunt, the second oldest person in Canada. She lived a Mennonite's healthy lifestyle and was blessed with long life.

There have been no worthwhile medical advances since washing hands and quarantines. Read Moses and follow the Jewish law and you will live a long, healthy life, guaranteed. (Notwithstanding accidents, of course. But don't drive a car if you don't want to have a car accident!)

Ex 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.

And one more thing, cancer will never be cured because it is a consequence of life, itself. It will only ever be cut away -- and then it will come back again. Every single killing cancer still kills and the "cure" is most often worse than the disease.