Reply #2: For what its worth, here is an email snippet from a US/Canadian tax mailing list:

[Oregone]

I am a Canadian and have been in the US / Canadian Income Tax and Immigration business for 46 years now. In those years I have had offices in 30 states and four provinces I am also old enough and lived in Regina Saskatchewan when the NDP government won the election based upon bringing in Medicare. Just about every doctor in the province was against it.

It took a while for the rest of the country to follow suit but by the end of the decade, Universal health care was in position across Canada. Before that, I still remember my father selling his 51 Plymouth Belvedere two tone green two door hardtop to pay for an operation for me.

As I said, I have been in the US Canadian Tax and Immigration business for 46 years. Over those years I have had HUNDREDS of Canadians return from living in the US because their Medical coverage in the US had run out or because they had a pre-existing condition that precluded medical insurance for anything meaningful or could not afford to buy it at any rate or the co-pay had wiped them out. 'My' most memorable 2 days were in Kasiloff Alaska where 2 couples out of 14 were losing their homes over medical insurance and then the next day, the parents of our tour bus driver at Denali National Park told me his parents in New Hampshire were losing their house and going bankrupt over their medical bills.

The official figure for the US is that 60% of bankruptcies are over medical bills. The really sad part is that 75% of them were insured but had too high co-pays or they just ran out or were not covered for 'that' particular event because it was a pre-existing condition.

see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090604095123.htm

If you want to see a criticism of the Canadian system, you can see it easily at www.david-ingram.com where i interview Gary Bannerman and Don Nixdorf, co-authors of "SQUANDERING BILLIONS"

However, I am closing with this single fact. I have had hundreds of people return to Canada for medical reasons. Although I have had and know of hundreds of Canadians who have gone to the US for treatment for specific treatments, I also know of thousands of Americans who come to Canada for specific treatments such as at Dr Brian Day's Cambie Clinic which advertises itself as only 20 minutes from Vancouver's International Airport. http://www.csc-surgery.com/contact.php Dr Day is also the past president of the Canadian Medical Association and is famous for suing the government to allow more private access for 'Canadian' residents to his clinic. http://www.canadianmedicinenews.com/2009/01/dr-brian-day-sues-to-overturn-bc.html

But here are my two major points for US residents who are being encouraged to tell their senator or congress person to reject universal coverage.

ONE - It is at least 20 years since I had a client or knew of a Canadian resident who sold their house or car or declared bankruptcy over medical bills. And,

TWO - I have NEVER, NOT ONCE, EVER, had a government agency or person pick my doctor for me or tell me what doctor I could use or tell me what medical procedures i could use.

That is Canada for you. Not perfect, ("Squandering Billions" points out lots of things wrong with the Canadian system) but no one goes broke and no one gets turned down.

do some research - figure out what is up - give me a call on the Wednesday Night program at www.david-ingram.com from 6 PM to 9 PM every Wednesday. watch Keith Olbermann tonight or find it later in archives.

david ingram