[QuestionBureaucracy]

If there is anything in this world one can trust to be uniformly meaningless and inaccurate, it is health statistics. Even if anybody bothered to define their terms with a modicum of precision there is no possible way to meaningfully gather and report health data and there never will be. Why any nation bothers to flush money down that rat hole is beyond me. That being said, all these nations with single-payer health care systems are taxing their citizens at rates not all that much higher than what we are paying. What I want to know is what in God's Holy Name do we have to show for it?

[Squawk 8888]

all these nations with single-payer health care systems are taxing their citizens at rates not all that much higher than what we are paying

Not mine. In most of Canada taxes are far higher than the US. Ontario has the second-lowest taxes in Canada but the marginal rate on income starts at 22% on an income of $9,000 per year, a middle-income factory worker will pay close to 40%. In addition we pay 15% sales tax. What do we get for it? Our military is underfunded and it takes two years to get medical treatment in our "free" health-care system.

[Conservative til I die]

What do we have to show for it? How about the MRI. If I am not mistaken, Canada didn't get one until the late 1990's. My guess is that the ones they have are already obsolete and if broken, will take about a year to repair.