Comments on: More grousing from the peanut gallery

By: Emme

Emme — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:57:33 +0000

When JB’s company goes public I will be the first in line to buy some stock options – this invention sounds like money!!

By: Stacey

Stacey — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:42:04 +0000

I am a physical therapist and I work in a variety of settings, and I am SO EXCITED about that keyboard! Wow. That is awesome. I would do a little dance of joy if we had those where I worked. People think I’m nuts cause I carry around the germ-killing wipes and alcohol pads to try to keep keyboards and phones clean. Ugh. Disgusting. Love love love the idea. He’s a genius.

By: jenB

jenB — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:55:57 +0000

That was me(above, being flip, but sincerely sympathetic. xo

By: jenB

jenB — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:54:41 +0000

What do you need lovely, let the Canadians help you out. I have all sorts of things in my drug drawer. Honest.

By: Leah

Leah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:04:11 +0000

A few weeks ago I got my bills for birthing my child. $40,000 for my completely routine, uncomplicated delivery and $6,000 for my completely healthy baby, who never even went to the nursery during my hospital stay. My (fracking expensive-as-shit) insurance is supposed to pay for all (or most?) of that, but I’m still holding my breath because what if it doesn’t? WHAT THEN?

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:02:40 +0000

Totally true Jacqueline!

My point was just that I think birth control costs more than $4 a month and we Cdns do pay more than $70 a month for coverage when you look at the big picture (those were 2 comments I saw). I think it’s misleading to pretend our system is that financially efficient.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:26:42 +0000

Lindsay – I know of no one declaring bankruptcy over car insurance or the price of gas. We pay higher taxes, sure.

However, in the US you can go broke paying your medical bills. That does not happen in Canada (nor other countries with universal healthcare).

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:32:09 +0000

Self-sanitizing keyboard? To a germa-phobe, such as myself, that sounds AWESOME!!

By: kim

kim — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:09:37 +0000

I had to watch this PBS Frontline program for a class I was taking – and I wish everyone in the US would watch it:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

I think healthcare/coverage is like most things – until it impacts you it isn’t a big deal. When it does finally impact you – the big deal is so much bigger than you ever dreamed it might be. I worked for doctors for a couple of years – and the ones I worked for were only mad that they didn’t make as much money as they used to (by screwing over insurance companies). Not that they didn’t still – just wasn’t as easy as it used to be.

Anyway – I think it is easy for people who don’t know too much about it to get sucked into extreme points of view – that if we have universal healthcare we’ll have terrible doctors, outdated technology and ridiculous waits to get medical care.

The PBS program visits 5 counties and explores their national healthcare – compares it to what the US currently has. Choosing national healthcare isn’t just one pat answer – there are many permutations in that – many that I think even the most squemish-about-it-Americans would be comfortable with.

One of the methods cut out the paperwork/bureaucratic part out – and to me that is one of the most expensive aspects of current US care – cut that part out and allocate that expense elsewhere alone would save billions.

I still find it incredible that we live in a country that believes in public education for all – but healthcare only to the insured…so if you manage to stay alive, the US will educate you…

By: bj

bj — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:05:22 +0000

You should definitely forward yoru story to our Reps in Washington (Patty & Murray for sure), and yeah, Reichert — right, for you?

I think this tying of health insurance to a job is weighing very heavily on the economy, limiting people’s mobility, limiting company’s flexibility, and grandfathering the old way of doing things. It’s like the old style pension funds, which have now mostly disappeared; the scheme just doesn’t make sense in a world where jobs move around so much.