[bamthedoc]

Health Insurance works by having all the policy holders paying a certain ammount per month. This is based on the likelyhood of the individual to get sick or injured and the cost of healthcare. In tandom with the increased use of medicare and medicaid, insurance has slowly been forced to increase its prices to keep up with rising healthcare costs.

It may be true that Canada has "free" healthcare, but it is also true that waiting lists for even simple things, like physicals, are days, weeks, and even months long. Canadian waiting lists are so long, in fact, that I've heard of many whom buy "extra" insurance so they can avoid such lists in the US.

It is better policy to try and restrain the cost of healthcare by staying out of it. You also make sure that there is plenty of competition so that costs are forced to go down. You end up paying a lot more later down the road through taxes than you would if you researched for the proper health insurance, first.

It will get harder and harder to sustain such a system. I've already heard that it threw the UK and Canada's economy into some pains. I believe I heard that several medical providors, pharmicutical, and other health companies went under. I don't know what all happened, but they have had a negative effect, already.