U.S. health care is a poor model...

For people who think the current U.S. health care system is the best in the world, here's your assignment: Watch the PBS Frontline documentary called "Sick Around the World" and then watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" documentary. Another option would be: Talk to a citizen from Canada, Norway, or other industrialized democracies about their health care system.

Then, after that, if you still think the U.S. health care system is the best in the world, you need to check into a mental hospital, because you must be wacky and need help.

In other countries, people have their health care covered from cradle to grave. In other countries, people are guaranteed health care even if they lose their jobs. In other countries, people don't go bankrupt because of huge medical bills and debts. Don't dare tell me America measures up to the best in the world, until those features are part of living in America.

It bothers me that, as an American, I always hope that we treat our people best and seek what's best in order to be a model for the rest of the world. With health care, that certainly is a myth. But it also occurs to me that I will probably never see this country with a single-payer (the best) system in my lifetime. Too many spineless politicians or ones that prefer lobbyist money more, too many lobbyists from the big industries, too many satisified members of the media who think they are supposed to preserve the status quo, and too many ignorant citizens easily fooled by the special interests of big business.

It is hard to get excited about the current health care reform proposal when the best that it will offer is a public option (government alternative), which could be weakened to nothing by the time Congress and the Republicans and the Blue-Dog Democrats get through messing with it. And if Congress eliminates the public option altogether, then the whole proposal is a joke and a sham. It is just a cash cow for the insurance industry.

Free market people and those who like free world trade always say that we shouldn't interfere with business. Well, if we get no single-payer system or no decent public option, then I'd like to be able to seek health care options beyond the borders of America. What would be ideal would be the possibility of somehow, some way, joining the Canadian health care system--I'd just as soon make a deal with Canada for something that would give me lifetime coverage than to continue to have to pay for something from the U.S. insurance industry that gives me partial coverage, high deductibles, and only coverage as long as I have a job to afford it. Open up the borders then for health care, if the U.S. isn't going to give its citizens the best coverage for care. Then watch the flood.