Health Canada would be a great thing for the U.S.

Nicholas Kristof:

The swift boating of Obama's health care plan has begun, with comparisons to the scary Canadian system (note: the ads always seem to leave out the buses of seniors going to Canada to get affordable prescriptions).

How bad is the Canadian system? The Kristof article has this anecdote from an American who had a stroke while working in Canada:

There were two patients to a room, and conditions weren’t as opulent as at some American hospitals. “The food was horrible,” she said...

[But] “They never spoke to me about money,” she said. “Not when I checked in, and not when I left...” [emphasis mine]

She now pays the equivalent of just $49 a month for health care

She had a relapse while visiting in the United States, and the story was different:

Ms. Tucker fainted while on a visit to San Francisco, and an ambulance rushed her to the nearest hospital. But this was in the United States, so the person meeting her at the emergency room door wasn’t a doctor.

“The first person I saw was a lady with a computer,” she said, “asking me how I intended to pay the bill...”

Nothing was seriously wrong, and the hospital discharged her after five hours. The bill came to $8,789.29. [emphasis mine]

I think it's time we ask for a better health care system.