[timetraveler]

After having read Yuri's take on the Canadian system, it would explain why the general public here in America is in such a stir, what with the current debate going on in D.C. about how to fix the health care system here. For many people here, folks can't afford health care insurance. One of the things being proposed is slappng a tax on employers to pay for basic barebones policies. The only problem with that idea is that if such a thing happens, it's only going to increase the unemployment rate, as the employers reaction is going to be to put some of his employees on part time hours, making them eneligible for company insurance. In many cases, the worker would be terminated outright from their job, just so the employer can maintain their profits, which would be a cruel blow to what has been called "the working poor". I've heard folks here say that perhaps such people should try to get public assisstance & get Medicaide, however, if you make a certain income level, you're denied it. Simply put, the working poor are put in a Catch22 situation where they make too much to qualify for state assisstance, yet they still don't make enough to purchace basic health care insurance. One thing that I myself don't like about the whole mess is that one part of the current healthcare thing that they have in the current incarnation of the bill is that any person who doesn't have health insurance has to pay a fine, just because they don't have insurance. That's a hell of a thing to tell a family where they're getting ready to loose their home because the working adults have become unemployed through no fault of their own. 'Nuff said on that.