From E's original e-mail: I think Canada is the place to get old in. I still haven't heard back from them on my Permanent Resident application. They must have quite a backlog of Americans.
JCB: Happened to see this [an article about Danny Williams, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, who defended his decision to travel to the US for heart surgery] today.
E: Good thing he had the $$$$$ for such treatment.
JCB: Yes. Health care is ridiculously expensive in this country. The question is: Why is this the case?
E: Quite a few factors I'm sure. One would seem to be clearly the unmitigated greed of the insurance industry and the drug industry (in other words, the free market going where it always goes for other than commodities). Another would the fact that the relationship is so bizarre between customers (including companies trying to offer benefits), the insurance industry, and care providers.
It's more than I can understand but I'll try to find that really good article that I think I was telling you about. The author thought that insurance should be just that - insurance against catastrophic events, rather than a product that paid for every little evaluation or treatment. He made the analogy to car insurance, which doesn't pay for your oil changes and people don't expect it to. If I recall correctly he also thinks that private insurance companies are corrupt and part of the problem, not the solution.
E: This is a good read [article on health care by David Goldhill, Atlantic Magazine, September 2009].
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