Ya know, I have to admit I struggle with that question a lot. One the one hand, if "illegals" are here and working and paying taxes (I used to work with migrant farm workers in Hood River), then they are entitled to the benefits without question. If they snuck across the border mostly for the purposes of trying to obtain a lifetime of expensive medical assistance, then my thinking is that those benefits belong to the citizens of this country first, and then secondarily to people here illegally and not contributing to the country. Otherwise, why not just pay for people all around the world.
No. I would oppose it anyway. Mostly because of the proposed cost, lack of freedoms within the system, and layers upon layers of partisan bureauracy making life & death determinations based on lobbying from unions, pharmicuticals...... All I am mentioning is that Canada is cutting people off from certain drugs that are fully life sustaining due to budget cuts and an overly bloated system, and what if this happens here once we have socialized medicine. I think it's a valild concern.
Here's something real interesting. I had the exact same question. So I had a chance to sit with a rep from the company that makes Flolan. He tells me the illnesses like PH are called "boutique" diseases within the industry. Since so few people have them there is never a chance of a generic form of the drug being made, so the pharmicutical companies that make these drugs can charge almost whatever they darn well please. Literally. Especially if they are in the ultimate class of "life sustaining" like Flolan. He further went on to say those types of drugs make so much money that they get more attention internally than aides or cancer as if they make a medicine for those types of things, a generic comes along soon and sweeps away their profit for continuing to make it. So more money goes into these small illnesses than the major ones. Money gets redirected... anyway, intersting stuff.
