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I think on a political level, that is to say, one focussed on equal treatment for all citizens, it's a fair point to say that while your friend may have died in a Canadian hospital (who can say, he may have died in another American hospital too, or he might have lived no matter where he was), but Lazyguy's friend would have received the same treatment regardless of how wealthy he was. I think Telestar's comments illustrate the underlying "Bunch of selfish assholes" mentality underlying private health care... "I don't want other people getting well off my hard work." It's their lives, jerk off, if you're actually pissed off that 12% of your annual income goes to saving people from DEATH, well, there isn't much to redeem you. If someone told me, "Hey we're taking ten grand from your earnings this year, but as a result this kid gets to live", I'd be more than happy with that explanation... and in reality, those tax dollars do a lot more than saving one kid. So I'm happy with the system even if the facilities could stand an overhaul... they're not "years behind" by any means, whatever certain people believe, but they're not cutting edge either. It's a government priority, and I think it's something that can actually be worked out with consistent effort. As a bonus, I don't have to pay ridiculous sums every time I get a minor injury or an illness of some sort, I can just walk down to the clinic and get it dealt with, which is great, considering I'm almost definitely going to hurt myself somehow / get sick once in a while, whereas I'm extremely unlikely to develop brain cancer. A few grand a year is a small price to pay for that kind of peace of mind.
As for the secondary education comment. No, taking ALL education barring post-secondary into account, the US is not top 10 in the world. This holds true until you graduate high school.
As for universities, yes, Harvard is #1 in the world every year. In fact, most of the top 10 schools are American (Oxford and Cambridge are in there too). However, how many people get to attend Harvard? UBC, the biggest university on the west coast of Canada, and U of T, the biggest out east, are ranked favourably to a lot of good schools around the world, well ahead of Brown, Zurich, Maryland, and Manchester. U of T gets a higher billing than NYU! In fact, the only countries with better universities are the US, the UK, and Japan. So Canada isn't falling too far behind in that regard... meanwhile, while U of T is ranked 23rd and UBC 36th, the highest ranked State U, Ohio State, is 64th, followed by Michigan State, which is in the 80s. I'm going to the 36th best school on earth and paying under $5000 per year Canadian for the privilege... that doesn't seem too bad to me. So, unless you have tons of cash, there's not much to choose between Canadian and American universities, and if you DO have tons of cash, well, it doesn't matter much whether you're Canadian or American; you can go wherever you want. Meanwhile, the government up here is doing a better job of getting kids in a position to ATTEND these secondary institutions, so that entry therein depends more on having half a brain than on Daddy's checkbook.
