The fact is that nearly 50,000,000 Americans have NO health insurance, and even those who DO have health insurance are at risk of bankruptcy when confronted by cancer. And 18,000 die in the US from lack of health care.

Stossel will selectively quote a lot of garbage about the Canadian healthcare system and how people have to wait a long time. All of that stuff is bogus, based only on a couple of papers "compiled" by a strange outfit called the Fraser Institute, a libertarian "think tank" which is allied with big business issues such as global warming denying and Big Tobacco defense. No other studies have found anything nearly as bad as what the Fraser Institute claims. The fact is, in the US, elective surgery is very available because it's VERY profitable (as in ridiculous), and consequently there are surgicenters on every street corner. As a result, your regular hospital, where you go for emergent treatment, is going broke. So they have to charge a thousand dollars to treat your cut finger.

The fact is, virtually no one comes to the US from Canada for medical care, but many Americans travel to Canada and other countries for care. The healthcare system in this country is just too expensive for most people. We pay more and more every year for less and less. The average person has to pay something like 500 a month for a decent policy, and even then they have a yearly deductible of $3000, plus copay for every visit and prescription refill. If a person gets sick, the insurance will often attempt to cancel or renig, and if the person ever changes jobs, it is possible he/she will not be able to transfer coverage. Even doctors and hospitals in the US think the system is crap. And we pay twice as much per capita as does Canada.

Stossel may claim that the reason US infant mortality is so high relative to other countries is that we count every baby, no matter how premature or ill, while other countries don't record those births. This has never been proven, and doesn't explain why US infant mortality is now GOING UP, rather than improving.

Certainly Cuba does not have the expensive high-tech equipment and even some drugs that the US has; partly because the US is trying to drive them into the ground. But they do a great job with what they have. They have a great life expectancy and a very low rate of AIDS.

I am not looking forward to Stossel's half-truths and inventions, but I don't think it will have a great impact on Friday at 10 pm.