Free Republic

Australia has a health care system which is similar in some aspects to what the Democrats are proposing. There is a public plan which covers about 70% of the country and private insurance which covers the rest. In a short time (the system was set up in 1983) the country became divided into one group that gets good medical care (private insurance) and the group whose insurance is not as good.For example those in the public system have to wait longer for surgery. There are also extensive waiting times for non emergency surgeries at public hospitals. Although waiting lists for...

As President Obama pushes for passage of his first major domestic policy change, some physicians are waging an all-out war against a health care reform bill they say amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine.

An organization of President Barack Obama's supporters has issued an urgent call for donations to battle "swiftboaters" over health care reform. ... the e-mail states: "We knew health care reform would face fierce opposition -- and it's begun. As we speak, the same people behind the notorious "swiftboat" ads of 2004 are already pumping millions of dollars into deceptive television ads. Their plan is simple: torpedo health care reform before it sees the light of day by scaring the public and distorting the President's approach. -------------- snippity snip --------------------

Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday. And 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.

Barack Obama on Thursday used Pittsburgh as his stage to ask Americans for a mandate to implement a national health care plan if he's elected president. "If we can't control skyrocketing health care costs, we'll confront a mounting moral crisis and a major anchor on the ability of American business to compete," Obama said the health care system's shortfalls hold back the nation and concern Americans more than any issue except soaring fuel prices. "The key is that the American people have to provide a mandate for change in this area," Obama said. "We have to insist ... we're going...

Eye specialist Sarah Anderson works at York Hospital. Her father Ian has been refused Sutent, a new cancer drug, which could provide the only real chance of prolonging his life. Sarah, 40, lives in York with husband, Bill, a computer programmer and their twins, Douglas and Ryan, five. As an ophthalmologist, I have spent my working life in the NHS. And for all its perceived failings, I have been proud of its fundamental role in our society - to provide equality of care for all. Of course, I've heard the term postcode lottery but as a doctor I've only ever...

Inside Sylvia de Vries lurked an enormous tumour and fluid totalling 18 kilograms. But not even that massive weight gain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer could assure her timely treatment in Canada. Fighting for her life, the Windsor woman headed to the United States. In Pontiac, Mich., a surgeon excised the tumour - 35 centimetres at its longest - along with her ovaries, appendix, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix. In addition, 13 litres of fluid were drained during that October, 2006, operation. And there was little time to spare: Had she waited two weeks, she would have faced potential...

Is all that ails the U.S. health-care system that it’s not run by a Communist dictatorship? That has long been a premise of apologists for Fidel Castro who extol the virtues of medical care on his totalitarian island nation. Left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is reviving this Cold War relic of an argument in his new movie on health care, Sicko, which premieres in a few weeks and favorably compares the Cuban health-care system to ours. Moore ostentatiously took a few sick 9/11 workers to Cuba for care. “If they can do this,” Moore told Time, referring to the Cubans,...