“America ranks 12th in more than a dozen health-care indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality, compared to 13 similar industrialized countries around the world. Guess which country ranks third behind Japan and Sweden? Surprise! It’s Canada. Canada has government-sponsored single-payer health care for each and every one of its citizens and in the process spends much less per capita on health care while having a healthier population than America. I know, you are saying ‘but Canadians have to wait a long time for certain tests and procedures to be performed and some come to the United States for their care.’ … [T]he median time a Canadian has to wait to see a specialist is approximately eight weeks. … For cancer treatment, the average wait time is five weeks, while it may take 40 weeks or longer to obtain a hip replacement. Many Americans believe this to be too long … yet over 45 million Americans who have no health-care insurance may wait much longer for different reasons, and even those with health-care insurance often have difficulty in getting timely appointments with a physician.” [editor’s note: This is the kind of half-truth disinformation we are up against in trying to wrest this aspect of life out of the fists of the oligarchs! Comparing the wait times of those who have NO coverage at all, with those who allegedly do … sheesh! - SAT] (04/01/06)