Wealth for complacency... yes in a fully socialist (communist) system that would be the case... in a democratic socialist system you are flat out wrong. Since a lot of American's class Canada and western Europe as socialists, ask any of them if they have the opportunity to become wealthy. I dare say we have just as much of a chance through hard work and smart decision making to be very rich under our economic systems as any American does.

Free thought for peace of mind... (communist=yes) having socialist like programs = no... Canadian, Australians, Europeans still choose their own doctors, can decide if they want various treatments, don't get excessive diagnostics, but don't get under diagnostics either and while you can sue for negligence, doctor's aren't afraid of being sued.

By a massive, peaceful change in power structure - I believe that happens every 4-8 years in the US... it's called an election. You don't like what the last guy did? Vote him out and get a new guy in after telling him you want something different.

You can't "quit" a socialist program - That's true... but once you have it you don't WANT to quit it... and what's more important, it can't quit YOU.

At least with a free market you have choices. If you don't like BCBS, switch to United Healthcare - See above statement... yes I can choose to pay for not 100% coverage with one guy or pay a little less for not 100% coverage with the other guy... but if I have a pre-existing condition, or I get sick and start costing them a lot of money, they can QUIT me... or charge me such exorbitant fees I might as well just hope I don't get sick. Insurance companies profit on the idea that if you have a lot of people, not all will be sick. Some will just pay and so long as the amount that aren't sick don't cost more than what everyone pays, you've made money. What could be better than having EVERYONE in the country, a whole population, paying into the exact same model. The only difference is that in the government it's not about making profit, it's about providing service. So managed correctly you will end up with more equipment, techonology, and faster service than you could ever get with 20 different private health insurers who's main focus is about gaining money and providing the least service.

Two things...

The free market -
In and of itself it sounds like a great idea... but then in and of itself so does communism. The problem is that when mega-corps have free reign and can completely police themselves and each other through competition what happens? Since it's all about money, profit margin, and ever increasing gains, companies start doing stupid things... like say outsourcing all production to a third world or cheap labour market. Look a how much of US infrastructure and production China owns already and where are the lower end manufacturing or customer service jobs that were traditionally in the US or Canada. I just had a baby and I can barely find any clothes, bottles, cribs etc that AREN'T made in China... I'd like nothing more than to buy US, Canadian, or European made items but over 90% I'd say have been outsourced to Asia with who knows what for quality control. That's just one example of the free market doing something that overall hurts.

Universal Healthcare -
Healthcare (in my opinion) is something that should be controlled by the government. It is too important a function to allow profiteering in. Before you jump on me as being a yuppy socialist Canadian you should know that I'm a dual citizen, my great grandfather was an American war hero in WW2 in the Pacific theatre with McArthur and my mom is a nurse who works half the year in Florida and half the year in Canada and knows both systems very very well. I have also lived a number of years of my life in Florida as well...

I thank God I was in Canada when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in April. For those of you who are misinformed, there was no waiting for getting into diagnostics. I had 3 CT scans run within 8 hours, they found a tumor and 2 days later I was in surgery having it removed. I have had multiple followups from the surgeon, referral to an oncologist and will have monthly checkups for the first year, then at least every 6 months thereafter along with CT or MRI's to make sure the cancer doesn't come back. Total cost to me $0... thank God for universal government run healthcare, because none of the healthcare plans I was covered by in the US (and my mom being a healthcare worker had arguably great private insurance through work) would have covered nearly half as much. Even if they covered 90% of everything I'd still be paying well over $100,000 plus followup, plus in 5 years when they class me as cured do you think that any US health insurance plan will ever cover me now? Not a chance.

Of note we also have private insurance in Canada and benefits through work. Canada's universal healthcare doesn't cover absolutely everything. Private or semi-private rooms need to be paid for, various holistic and elective healthcare issues are not covered by the government. So we have choice in if we want a more premium service or if we just want to make it to living one more day, but either way you will get treatment and it will not bankrupt you.

Are there problems? Yes, there's a lot of stupid things that go on in Canada's healthcare system and I wouldn't advocate OUR system that has somewhat run amok for any other country. I do believe in moderate user fees, I do believe we are overtaxed, and I do believe that there should be a limit so that chronic abusers of the system get turned away.

Ask Australians who went from an American style system to a universal healthcare system with moderate user fees and see what most of them say. The government can't take it away because they would be out of office so fast their heads would spin because their population realized how big of a benefit it is to everyone. I lived in Australia for a year and had to use their system to see a doctor (I had travel insurance) and from what I saw and after talking with a lot of Aussies it seemed like a great system with little abuse and your choice of getting in quick and paying the whole fee up front and getting reimbursed by the government, or, waiting for a bit longer, paying a small $10 fee, and having the doctor's office bulk bill the government... your choice since you're so worried about choices.

All those commercials they air about how universal healthcare is bad... are sponsored by insurance companies... yes universal healthcare is VERY bad for them, they'll lose money and have to restructure. Is it bad for everyone else? No. That stupid one that has "Canadians" telling their horror stories of long waits and having to go to the US for treatment really ticks me off. Are there horror stories? Yes. Are there long waits? Depends, there can be for some things. But in the US are there horror stories? Yes. Are there long waits? Again, depends on the hospital/treatment since some are better than others because they're owned/run by all kinds of different organizations. A true horror story is being turned away at an emergency room while having a heart attack because you don't have insurance and then dying in the parking lot. THAT is NOT an urban legend. It happened at a Florida hospital and it was after a few incidents like that that they had to pass a law that no one can be turned away from the ER. They had to pass that law because the "company" was worried about "profit" not "healthcare".

But in either case... I can afford to go and buy a house this month and qualify for a mortgage instead of having to pay a doctor's bill this month... and that will help out the economy more than anything.