<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: =
Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol=
e_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV> Andrew</DIV>
<DIV> Thanks well stated</DIV>
<DIV> Dale</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=
=2>The
national health-care idea has been tried in other countries to its <BR>ful=
lest
extent. There are very real trade-offs to consider. I was rais=
ed
<BR>in Canada so I can relate some anecdotes regarding some of those nasti=
er
<BR>trade-offs. I've compared what my brother has to pay for his
medicare in <BR>British Columbia and what I pay for PPO health insurance h=
ere
in New Mexico <BR>and as a per-centage of take-home-pay it is the same.&nb=
sp;
The quality of care <BR>isn't even similar. The Canadian system is
losing its best doctors to the <BR>U.S. (One is my cousin, set the g=
rade
curve for the entire history of the <BR>school.) The reasons are all=
related to the punative way the system treats <BR>successful, hard-working=
doctors.<BR><BR>Now I have a policy that at retirement will return unused
premiums as a <BR>lump sum benefit. You won't find that from any sta=
te
run health care <BR>system. HMOs were sold as a means of keeping pri=
ces
down, the problems you <BR>have with them you will have with a national sy=
stem
but with less of a <BR>checks and balance protection. Be careful wha=
t
you wish for, you may get <BR>it and much more.<BR><BR>The cost problems w=
e
have in the US do vary from state to state, that <BR>should be a hint.&nbs=
p;
We have some house cleaning to do at the various levels <BR>of
government. What our insurance commissioners do that hurts our pocke=
t
<BR>books we should make sure hurts their re-election. Here in NM go=
od
OBGYN <BR>doctors can no longer afford their mal-practice insurance (requi=
red
to <BR>practice). I know several well established practices that are=
closing <BR>because of this and not because of any liability they have
garnered through <BR>actual mal-practice.<BR>One of the biggest forces to
drive up prices in medical care has been <BR>government paid care in the f=
orm
of Medicare and Medicaid. People don't <BR>realize how much this aff=
ects
the market. Bush recently got a drug-benefit <BR>added to medicare f=
or
poor seniors. It did exactly what experts predicted <BR>it would do,=
drive up prescription costs, almost as much as the <BR>benefit. Good=
intentions without an understanding of the economy of the <BR>whole system=
are
quite damaging. Democrats would have done even more harm <BR>here.&n=
bsp;
Politicians just don't seem to get it, government intervention of <BR>the =
type
we have experienced and that has been tried elsewhere doesn't
<BR>help. Problem is, political quick fixes are seen as a way =
to
garner <BR>votes. It's time we woke up and made our voices and=
votes heard.<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR>Andrew</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>