Gee, I just watched a PBS story about the healthcare systems in Canada and Britain that was totally opposite of Stossel's "findings". But then we know what side of the street Stossel is on. I quit watching him a long time ago when he did two reports in a row that I knew to be extremely biased since I was intimately familiar with the subjects. And Diane Sawyer seems to have just given up. 

Diane Sawyer was shamelessly plugging this biased program, most likely, because she was told to do so. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to do things in the workplace that we don't agree with. I wouldn't fault Sawyer for her remarks. It's a ratings thing.

That link to email John Stossel doesn't work but it did take me to the ABC site where you can read comments on this show. Almost everyone was giving Stossel the rough side of their tongue for this dishonest piece. Some very interesting comments there. 

abc does seem to have a problem with some of their consultants, including this guy who worked for them for six years and was only fired in may when the french embassy notified abc that his academic credntials were fake.  now it's been revealed that he put his name to a made up interview of obama.   of course, this was the network that turned over 5 hours on the 5th anniversary of 9-11 to some right wing writer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_en_tv/fake_interviews_3

I am guessing when the pundits don't identify " conservative experts ", they are actually exposing their own opinions or fabrications, and not exposing themselves as the authors. In other words, creating facts.

Stossel is EXTREMELY biased. One only needs to watch "Stupid in America" to see which way he leans.

When I worked in England, I had to go to the doctor a couple of times. I don't see how the wait was any longer than I experience here in austin. And just to drive home the point, I wasn't in some small hamlet, my job was in downtown London, the biggest city in England. So if the wait isn't really the issue, what is? I still got the same treatment, and ended up taking the same medicine for my cold, what could it possibly be that's different?

The idea that you have to pay taxes to help your fellow man and enrich the well-being of the nation. Compassion for other citizens is just so un-American. It doesn't jibe with the American ideal of greed and selfishness.

"...greed and selfishness..."

That's self-sufficiency and rugged individualism, Redking.

UNtil some swarthy foreigners get too scary, then it's anything the pimp wants,just tell me I'm "safe".

I have some serious concerns about Dr. Gratzer's political ideology. From the summary of his book at [link to www.manhattan-institute.org] :

"What needs to be done? Dr. Gratzer mounts a bold and provocative argument, rejecting the conventional wisdom that socialized health care is compassionate and that top-down government agencies like the FDA actually save lives. Instead, he prescribes a strong dose of capitalism."

I beg your pardon? The FDA doesn't actually save lives? If I understand this gentleman's argument correctly, if the FDA didn't exist, then the invisible hand of unadulterated capitalism would cause Merck to honestly disclose it's findings about Vioxx?

Has he seen how differently pharma-sponsored trials are set up compared to independent ones? And how this leads to very different findings about safety and effectiveness? Might it have something to do with the profit motive?

Free-market capitalism is all well and good when no one's life is at stake, but rather than thinking ideologically, one's prescriptions should be EVIDENCE-BASED, like a good physician. I think we have abundant evidence that the FDA places a very necessary, and yes, life-saving, check on profit-seeking in the health care industry.

Where's Dave Schultz when you need him?

Hey there Johnny, Sean just called you a great American.  No reciprocation?  What gives?  Manners do count ya know.

The Con Party continues to tell everyone that National Health Care is not good for America. They waver between long lines and raising taxes as their only solid reasons to keep this un-American system out of this country. Why?  Long lines, hell, if you don't have DickCheney insurance, you wait 7-10 days for a blood test. With Cheney insurance, you can get those results in 7-10 minutes. Raise taxes, WHY? I have not seen any study as to the amount of money paid in premiums to the ever-fairminded HMOs etc. Why don't we add these totals from individuals and companies and see how much is floating around.

As far as Stasshol goes, my cousin, the DukeofDoors informs me that Johnny was not an honest man and his family has dismissed him. And my cousin is non-partisan. Yuk Yuk

Prince, your statements show a critical error in judgment. You're doing something called risk assessment, which means you are looking at the potential drawbacks of two alternatives, weighing them critically, and using this analysis to inform your decision-making. Clearly you can see how such a process is fatally flawed.

The problem, you see, is that you're thinking LOGICALLY. That's not allowed. The only basis for sound decision-making is to find as many drawbacks for the side you have already decided you're not going to support, and repeat these constantly until you inspire enough fear in others to forcibly convert them to your way of thinking.

If you keep thinking your way, you're just going to keep on being a well-informed, conscientious citizen, instead of rising to the heights of a politician!

OT, but ya gotta love right wingers, the gift that keeps on giving!

yep, the party of taking personal responsibility...Grasping Oddball Perverts

Stossel's brain hasn't resettled since he got the crap slapped outta him by that wrestler.

Yes indeed - thank heaven we're finally getting some perspective from..uh...John Stossel.

Hey ABC - there is a rumor going around that Rush Limbaugh would like to give his perspective on serving in the military. 

Stossel is a jerk.

Wow, Craig. Thanks for linking to that article. He IS a bigtime jerk.

Thanks. Should be required reading, especially for every rich snob who thinks like John.

SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!

For what we pay in premiums, and the un-insured's care, the "hold-up" prices for drugs found much cheaper in everybody's country, we could pay for universal care with much fewer waits than the HMO's, PPO's or American industry altogether!.

Medicare has a 3% administration cost, compared to the insurance companies' 30-40% cost, that does not consider the profit margin for the insurance company that does not deliver care. If one administrator were to have the ability to negotiate medical & pharma costs imagine the change in prices!! I'm sure the insurance companies do!!

Simply put, if we all paid into one system, and all carriers billed one administrator as well as all the un-insured in such a system, we would have a fraction of the price for coverage, and their would be no restriction on who, or what doctor you could see because all doctors would be a participant!! The same care for all, at a cost evenly distributed with the profit margin, and need to restrict care the way HMO"s do less, if not a priority at all!

We have known that the universal health care system would mean a huge burden lifted from 95% of the industries big, and small. The only people whom would be effected would be the Bill Frist's Hospital Moguls and the Medical Insurers, and the Pharma industry! You know, the people that have been holding America up for thier health care, making our system, if one could call it that, little more than a monopoly squeezing the blood out of America one dollar at a time!

Happy Thoughts;

Dan Grady

It is so hard to get perspective on this wiith all your lying and manipulations of facts, John.

That is what she should have said.

Dishonest reporter John Stossel

Airs a passel of lies most colossal

No Canadian would trade

For our health care charade

Unless they were sheeple most docile.

so what if it takes 17 weeks to see a specialist in Canada?  It recently took me 10 weeks to see a specialist here in the US, and in addition to the wait, I have to pay $420 per month for my health insurance and my deductible is $1500 a year. 

Am I the sole person who is taken aback by the absurdity of these arguments against HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE?

There is no other way to frame it. If you support the status quo, you think that only SOME PEOPLE DESERVE HEALTHCARE, since that is the best the status quo can promise, as well as delegating healthcare decisions to INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Are they insane? They LIKE living in a country where 47 MILLION of us have NO HEALTH INSURANCE and those who are insured AREN'T ALWAYS COVERED????

Why can't Republicans take the correct side of a no-brainer issue?

Contaminants in our water and food? Not a problem say Republicans, just leave those huge multinational corporations alone.

Polluted air? Big deal say Republicans, just leave those other huge multinational corporations alone.

And so on.

Follow the money and on the other end you'll find Republican sensibilities rolling around naked on a bed of cash. Cast Rush Limbaugh as their sensibilities and the horrific picture is complete.

Randy

Excellent!  10 out of 10 of my brain functions thought this review was helpful...

Everyone should read the information about Stossel on the fair.org site. This man should not be considered s journalist. Even when I agree with one of his points (which is few and far between) his information and sources cannot be trusted.

Stossel consistently omits facts that do not support his "free market rocks" view, and outright lies at other times. he has been reprimanded several times for lies. How can ABC employ such an idiot?

Totally free markets have been tried for millennium, and they eventually work to the benefit of the wealthy. Who gets the great medical care in the US right now? The wealthy!! They do not want to have a system that may somehow ruin their spoils. Same old story. Who gets no attention? The poor, the lower-middle class, and more frequently the middle class.

So of course the US has great healthcare... if you can afford it. But the average US citizen has poorer healthcare than the average European or even Cuban citizen.

As an ex-pat Canadian living in the US for 15 years now, I am appalled by the arguments against universal health care for everyone in this country.  It is SHAMEFUL that the US is the only country in the industrialized world that does not have a national health insurance program, and disgraceful that 47M of our citizens are uninsured...not to mention those that carry "castatrophic-only" insurance (so count them as under-insured).

I'm tired of people railing against the Canadian system, using buzzwords like "socialized medicine", which are only intended to make people angry and fearful.  If you don't like the Canadian system, there are many many more to choose from--UK, Norway, France...just pick one.

If this is not the defining issue for Americans in the next 2-3 years, I don't know what is.

Remember, ABC puts people like Stossel on the air. They don't fact-check his stories even when he clearly has a bias and has a past history of dishonest reporting. ABC continues to provide him with a platform. The question is why?

One of the producers is Victor Neufeld.

http://www.fair.org/extra/9406/neufeld-stossel.html 

In fact, Victor created Stossel. 

In fact, Victor's wife Lois created the PR firm Media Access, which has done work for various non-environmental companies.

In fact, Victor is now working for CNN on Anderson Coopers show and Paula Zahn. 

Small world.... 

Thanks Sluggo, good information.