Yes, that's why middle class people are going bankrupt at an ever faster rate due to medical bills. It doesn't work for the middle class. That's an illusion. The health care that the typical American in the Middle Class receives doesn't even rate on the graph when compared to the healthcare that everyone in the other G8 countries get. It's pathetically incomplete, and immensely overcharged. Even the rich are being ripped off for their healthcare (although they can afford it. That also means they can afford to pay higher taxes, too, BTW).

Americans have been conned into thinking that severely substandard healthcare is "good". I haven't met a single American yet who has gotten emergency medic...

Yes, that's why middle class people are going bankrupt at an ever faster rate due to medical bills. It doesn't work for the middle class. That's an illusion. The health care that the typical American in the Middle Class receives doesn't even rate on the graph when compared to the healthcare that everyone in the other G8 countries get. It's pathetically incomplete, and immensely overcharged. Even the rich are being ripped off for their healthcare (although they can afford it. That also means they can afford to pay higher taxes, too, BTW).

Americans have been conned into thinking that severely substandard healthcare is "good". I haven't met a single American yet who has gotten emergency medical treatment in Canada that didn't go home extremely disgusted with the American Medical System; the insanely long waits for Americans in emergency rooms, the lack of followup, the unnecessary tests, the long delays in treatment while waiting for some Insurance Agency Bureaucrat to decide to pay for your procedure.

Just looking at a single aspect of the way that the American Healthcare system fails Americans; long waiting times in emergency rooms. That long wait just doesn't exist in Canadian hospitals for one very important reason — in the US, emergency room doctors take the place of General Practitioners. Rather than have a family doctor, they have to go to the hospital for relatively routine treatments, or HMOs and their constantly-rotating cycle of doctors that never really learn the specifics of their patients' medical history and lifestyle.

That's no way to treat sick and injured people. It's an atrocity, and Americans should demand better. More than just the public option, they need universal healthcare!