Wall Street Journal - McCain's Health plan is sound!

[PainRack]

Damn it.......... Is it possible someone can help me edit my previous post by adding paragraphs? I swear that I intended to press enter more than once..............well ok,I forgot.......... please pretty please?

[Broomstick]

My MRSA infection this year was treated with an easily available antibiotic a local chain store provides to the community for free (the store absorbing the cost) - it was the doctor's visit that had the daunting price tag. So... in order to "save" money by not providing easy access where it is CLEARLY required your opposition to contributing to society and public health society is risking a $30,000 bill for "just" treating an infection through IV drugs (that could have, earlier, been treated through oral medication)

You can treat systematic or gangrenous MRSA with oral meds?I thought that the current medication regimes are either IVs or topical ointments?

Where did I say it was either systemic or gangrenous? MY POINT was that it was treated BEFORE it got to that point. Most CA-MSRA in my area is usually treatable with oral Bactrim IF caught early enough (that's just the strain we have locally - your mileage may vary) - I recognized the warning signs of a bad and accelerating infection and demanded to be seen by a doctor that day (my leg went from fine to swollen and purulent in less than 24 hours - definitely a bad infection). MOST people without health insurance would have waited until the pain was unbearable or they could not walk, at which point you're looking at something much, much more serious. Hospitalization at the very least, which would be $20-30k, more than I will make over the course of 2008.

As it is, it's been over a month since the infection and my skin has not yet completely healed. Very annoying. But even "mild" MRSA is nothing to fool with.

[Graeme Dice]

And the US school system doesn't "suck". It's probably more close to "mediocre". The US ranks #13 in the world for number of top 100 research universities per capita.

I'm not sure that I would consider a university to be part of the school system. They can and do recruit students from all over the world, not just from their local elementary school educated population.

You must make a lot at the McDonalds Edmonton...

$12/hour is the current advertised wage I see on their billboards.

Just curious though, what kind of money do say, professionals make in Canada? If your teachers make well over 40k a year, how much do your engineers or doctors make?

Teachers start at $40K, and can make up to about $65K depending on how many degrees they have, their position, and their province. Engineers start between $40K to $50K depending on city, and have a huge range with some people in management making far more. Dr.'s and dentists make quite a bit more than engineers.

[Darth Wong]

You can't talk about teachers' compensation strictly in terms of salary: teachers in Ontario also get one of the most generous benefits packages anywhere, and that's part of an employee's compensation. The teachers' union pension fund is one of the largest investment funds in Canada (and was responsible for starting the destabilizing flood of investment fund incursions into the agricultural commodities market). Their benefits package is really second to none and costs a fortune in its own right, and teachers with seniority have essentially bulletproof job security.

The only real problem with being a teacher in Ontario is that it's a one-way ticket: even if a teacher sincerely wanted to get out of the business (which a lot of them complain about, but very few ever try to leave), no employer would want to have him because he's been spoiled by becoming accustomed to the best employee benefits package in the province.