They aren't "free", Wayne -- your taxes pay for them. That is the biggest misnomer about universal health care and it peeves me off to no end. It's not FREE - everybody pays, and pays lots. Higher income taxes, higher sin taxes (alcohol, tobacco, fuel), higher sales taxes. FYI we pay less for health premiums and income taxes combined here in the US, than we paid in taxes alone in Canada, plus we paid for supplemental insurance in Canada, but I digress...
A person without a Canadian health insurance card can pay about $40 CDN at a Canadian clinic for a flu shot. In the US it typically costs about $15 USD if it's not covered by insurance.... IF you can get a flu shot. That's the trick. Unfortnately Clinton et al created a situation where there was no money in it for US drug manufacturers to produce the stuff here, so now when the stuff produced overseas doesn't pan out... oops we're caught with our immune systems down. :roll:
I'm curious, Wayne. Just how would you "pick up a bunch of them"? Are you a doctor or nurse practicioner? Will you be giving the shots yourself, or leaving folks to stick themselves with a needle? Putting them in the mail? Customs might have a problem with that... Somehow I cannot see any clinic or doctor just doling out shots without actually administering them to the actual patient... or has the system deteriorated that much more since I left?
I'm sure it's the thought that counts... but the post just struck me as weird.
Jenn
