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Published on: 10/19/2008
Last Visited: 6/25/2009
GERALDINE CAHILL, TRNN: Welcome to the next segment of our interview with Deborah Burger about the state of the US health care system.
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CAHILL: Now that we've talked a little bit about what the two major parties have proposed as health care solutions this election, we look a little more at the California Nurses Association proposal for an alternative to the current health care system in the United States.
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CAHILL: I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that the United States is in a fairly precarious economic situation at the moment, and an overhaul of the health care system would seem to me, on the face of it, to be an extremely expensive exercise, particularly with the government having to fund what essentially the public is paying for right now through the insurance companies.
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CAHILL: How would you respond to the critics who look at systems like the system in Canada, for example, which has universal health care, and says, well, there are still huge waiting lines for people to get access to surgery and so on?
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CAHILL: Another critique would be that the current system in the United States gives the public a choice of who their health care provider is, who their insurance company is.
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CAHILL: The last question that I wanted to ask you today-and I do hope that we get a chance to speak again-is the difference between what you're proposing and what the Obama campaign is currently proposing.
What he would argue is that what the Obama campaign is proposing is working within the current structure to make some positive changes to the health care system, that the plan, as you've just illustrated to me, is not at all achievable in this current environment, that it's just too unrealistic.