Or maybe the guys a germ-a-phobe, and thats why he wont take cash!

And Canadians buy their life insurance at Canadian Tire--have you seen those commercials yet???
Your life redeemable on a new set of tires (not including balance or stems).

The teacher said "but you may have been born out of the country. If your mother can't play hockey and your father can't play hockey does that mean you can't play hockey either?"

"No" said the girl. "That means I'm an American."

jim

Any tourist can walk into a Cuban hospital and get 1st class treatment. All they ask is your name and age. They don't ask for money and prescriptions that cost hundreds of dollars in the USA are 50 cents in Cuba.

In Canada we do charge foreigners. Our biggest problems are wait times and a shortage of nurses due to the higher pay in the US. In most of Europe there are no wait times and they pay even higher taxes than Canadians.

Bottom line nationalized health care is very expensive. Other types of insurance, like fire or car, is cheaper because many people never put in a claim but we all need some kind of health care eventually.

There are differences as well in socialization. In England doctors are employed by the gov't and receive a salary while in Canada doctors are self employed and they bill the gov't per service. So in England you go to a clinic and see a different doctor every time while in Canad we still have the family doctor.

One advantage of the British system is that every record is in a central system so trends can be spotted quickly, like a lot of cancer in a geographic area. They inadvertently discovered that butchers have more boys.

jim

The world is not a black and white kind of place.  There are many shades of gray to be found.

In your discussion concerning socialism you cite Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and other countries that have tried or are trying some form of socialism (in your definition).  Yes, there have been awful travesties of human rights in the name of socialism.  But does that mean it is unequivocally wrong?  If so, how do you explain the success of the Scandanavian countries?  England?  Canada?  Japan?  France?  All countries with some form of nationalized health care.

CC