Rising because of increasing and aging population, not because insurance companies are mandated to increase their profits by their shareholders every year. That's why health care in Canada is cheaper.

Why? Wouldn't the US population go for less of their tax dollars as a whole being spent of health care. Or not having to worry about having to declare bankruptcy if you or your family member got really sick? Or saving the lives of the estimated 100k people that die in the US every year because they cannot afford proper treatment?

Its true. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicly_funded_health_care:Most developed countries, with the exception of the United States, have partially or fully publicly funded health systems. Most western industrial countries have a system of social insurance based on the principle of social solidarity covers eligible people from bearing the direct burden of most health care expenditure, funded by taxation during their working life.

The only difference that Canada has is only a few things can be two tiered (private). I would like to have the option of private heath care if you choose to pay for it, but also keep the public system. This is how most western countries work. If you think differently please provide examples.

Ive already stated the Canadian costs are about half of that in the US. It seems the US is the ones with the unnecessary medical procedures.

In reality most western civilized countries have fully or partially funded health care. It is the US that is the exception.

If the US really had better treatments and outcomes, then you would think their life expectancy would be higher than Canada, but it is not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Also for the majority of afflictions you are far better off in Canadda than the US: http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/8/1

So, for comparable or less outcome, for this the US spends twice the amount per capita and per GDP than we do in Canada.

Personally my child was born 10 weeks premature. He required a top teir hospital and round the clock monitoring for about 8 weeks before being discharged. He also requires a number of medical tests up until he is 2 for monitoring of side effects to check his development. There was no waiting ever for anything that he needed. I've read online of people in the US that went through the same thing and their bill ended up being close to half a million dollars or more. The majority of which would have been covered but still. All I had to pay for was parking.

My father also went to the hospital complaining of weakness. They checked him out and immediately prepped him for surgery for a pacemaker. He received what they said was a $50k pacemaker, top of the line. No wait, no bills.

No the Canadian system is not perfect. Yes there are wait times for non life threatening conditions, so yet it definitely needs improving. But given my experiences with the Canadian and American systems (my sister is American - when she went into labour they would not send an ambulance until she gave them a visa number), makes me firmly believe our system is the correct way to go and I would never trade it for a private system like the US. Obama is on the right track - he just has to ignore the uninformed idiots and keep pushing.

I can also see any doctor I want anytime. I dont even have to be in the same province. Anywhere in Canada.

Please cite statistics that you get better health care on average than Canadians, because statistics also show that over 16% of US citizens have zero health care at all.

So you do realize that the current Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan wars were all created by the US foreign policy of selling arms to either or both sides in the 70's thru 90's in an attempt to destabilize the region? Read you own history first and then come back and comment please.

I have insight into both health care systems. Unless you are rich and are paying for everything yourself, you definitely do not have better health coverage than we have in Canada.

The actual truth is the US is spending $2billion to fix their own mess they created with their moronic foreign policy.

That's just nonsense spread by Republican based spin trying to discredit any government sponsored heath care. If you are in critical need the procedure or service you will get it right away. No one has ever died waiting for a procedure. Pure nonsense.

No its definitely not perfect but its a hell of a lot better than the US system that will drive you bankrupt if you get sick.

Canada has 15% corporate tax rate (http://www.canadabusinesstax.com/corporate-income-tax-rates/), 52 week combined maternity/parental leave, free health care, and federal pension plan.

There is no reason the US cannot provide the same level of benefits except for political bickering and the close to 2 billion *per day* the US spends on its military.