redblueamerica.com

While there is not doubt in my mind that our health care system is in shambles and something needs to be done about it, I am not so sure that universal health care will fix all of the problems...
Here are some alarming statistics about health care in Canada:
* Studies by the Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 4 weeks or more to see a specialist; 24% of Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room."
*"According to the Fraser Institute, treatment time from initial referral by a GP through consultation with a specialist to final treatment, across all specialties and all procedures (emergency, non-urgent, and elective), averaged 17.7 weeks in 2005."
* "Since 2002, the Canadian government has invested $5.5 billion to address the wait times problem."
* "A January 19, 2008, article in The Globe And Mail states, 'More than 150 critically ill Canadians – many with life-threatening cerebral hemorrhages – have been rushed to the United States since the spring of 2006 because they could not obtain intensive-care beds here. Before patients with bleeding in or outside the brain have been whisked through U.S. operating-room doors, some have languished for as long as eight hours in Canadian emergency wards while health-care workers scrambled to locate care.'"
* All of the above information was obtained from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care...

I am aware that there are 3 types of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics... However, I can't help but feel apprehensive about universal health care when I read this type of information or think about other U.S. government run programs. Where will the money to fund the program come from? I think before we can implement such an enormous undertaking, both the short and long term affects (and minute possible affects) need to be thought of and planned for accordingly.

This comment is going to seem very ignorant and I'm fine with that. I don’t know much about how the health care system works and I know I have an awful lot to learn before I can truly decide where I stand on this issue.
The thought of government run health care scares me, and anybody who has been to a county hospital in L.A. (King Memorial and Olive View to be precise) feels the same. Even L.A.P.D.'s Swat team is scared of King Memorial. They put notes underneath their vests instructing ambulances not to take them to King Memorial in case the worst should happen.
When I think about the concept of Universal Health Care provided by our government, I picture King Memorial hospitals all over the country.
Say what you will, but until you've been a victim, er...patient of a hospital like these, you're just as uneducated about the issue as I am.

as an old emergency room nurse and a current correctional healthcare nurse, I strongly believe that something has to be done to stop the use of emergency rooms as clinics for the indigent.