Whenever anyone proposes universal healthcare in the US, I tell them two stories: 1) My aunt is an oncology nurse in a major city. A high percentage of her pat

Whenever anyone proposes universal healthcare in the US, I tell them two stories: 1) My aunt is an oncology nurse in a major city. A high percentage of her patients are from Canada, because they can get treated here for their cancer, and are unable to get those treatments in Canada (or can't get them in a timely manner). Of course, these are only the patients who can afford to pay it out of pocket or have supplemental health insurance. 2) My dad developed a rare lung disease and was treated by the VA (which is government run healthcare for veterans of the US Armed Forces). They determined he needed a lung transplant to survive. It took them 18 months to run the tests necessary to determine if he was a candidate for a transplant, and due to the progressive nature of the disease, by the time they were done running their tests, a panel in DC determined he was no longer a viable candidate for a transplant, and sent him off to die[1]. As a last-ditch effort, he reached out to Mayo Clinic, who agreed to see him. They ran the same tests in 3 days, and determined that he was a candidate for a transplant. He got a new lung, and lived for three more years. I strongly suspect the delay in treatment cut his life short, but I'm not a doctor. I do not want universal healthcare. [1] People make fun of Sarah Palin and her "death panels", but they're a very real thing no matter what they're called.