superchunk said: The question is why do the people who have $$$ get the treatments in the US? Its because ours costs more that we have better and more specialized services. Sure yours is free, but it also is worse in terms of service. You get what you pay for and thats why you get health insurance.

America is pretty much at the forefront of medical technology.  That does not AFAIK have an awful lot to do with our health care system. 

famousringo said:  Total Health expenditures as a % of GDP:  USA: 15.2% Sweden 11.5% (second highest spender) Canada: 9.9%    It's true, some rich Canadians go to the US to get a procedure done faster. On the other hand, some Americans go abroad to get procedures (again, it's usually, but not always cosmetic) done cheaply.

I have always wondered if our healthcare expenditures are partially to blame on people with severe illnesses and disabilities moving to the US for care. I remember being in Holland and Belgium for a week and not seeing a single person in a wheelchair. I realize that may be happenstance, but you have to admit the US has more handicap accessible stuff than most other countries. Then again the crazy lawsuit ways of this nation may have a bigger impact. I know that the infant death rate in my home State of Maryland is one of the highest in the US because critically ill infants from neighboring states are all flown to Johns Hopkin's Children Center. Statistically it isn't fair, but what can you do?

rocketpig said: BTW, nice nation-bashing, fanousringo. Piss off. If you can't enter this discussion without bashing the US, just stay the **** out.

 I note you aren't taking the Americans bashing Canada to task. Nice double standard.

NJ5 said: My knowledge of economy is pretty crappy, but: If I have heard it right, the Canadian dollar isn't rising... It's the American dollar which is falling, so why would that affect Canadian prices of things which aren't even manufactured in USA? Prices in USA should rise, but that's all, right?

 It's both, actually. The Canadian dollar is the third fastest growing currency in world markets this year, last I heard. Apparently, the market has come to associate the CAD with petroleum, so as long as oil prices keep going up, so will the Canadian dollar. It's choking off our manufacturing and export sectors, but at least we'll get a good price for our primary goods that the world can't do without.

Final-Fan said: superchunk said: The question is why do the people who have $$$ get the treatments in the US? Its because ours costs more that we have better and more specialized services. Sure yours is free, but it also is worse in terms of service. You get what you pay for and thats why you get health insurance. America is pretty much at the forefront of medical technology. That does not AFAIK have an awful lot to do with our health care system.

Maybe your right, one significant reason the US medical system is so expensive is due to medical tools and other neccesities being so over priced. I mean cmon last time I went to the doctor and had a simple bandage for my son, he burned himself, it was atleast 10x the price for the bandages and burn ointments than I would have paid at Walgreen's or some other pharmacy place.

But, I still think that the US not having free healthcare enables overall better treatment. Though I also think that healthcare should be universally free. 

superchunk said: Final-Fan said: superchunk said: The question is why do the people who have $$$ get the treatments in the US? Its because ours costs more that we have better and more specialized services. Sure yours is free, but it also is worse in terms of service. You get what you pay for and thats why you get health insurance. America is pretty much at the forefront of medical technology. That does not AFAIK have an awful lot to do with our health care system. Maybe your right, one significant reason the US medical system is so expensive is due to medical tools and other neccesities being so over priced. I mean cmon last time I went to the doctor and had a simple bandage for my son, he burned himself, it was atleast 10x the price for the bandages and burn ointments than I would have paid at Walgreen's or some other pharmacy place. But, I still think that the US not having free healthcare enables overall better treatment. Though I also think that healthcare should be universally free.

yea that's the paradox there. Make healthcare free and it won't be of as good quality, but make it expensive and millions of people can't get access to it.

Myself being Canadian I don't understand it... Why is it still cheaper in the USA? Plus living in Quebec, makes you pay 13.5% taxes on stuff... So in other words a Wii alone costs 330$. T_T

rocketpig said: Remember that additional overhead costs can be spread much more evenly through the enormously larger American market. That adds a bit to the cost. Also, Canadian import taxes are higher IIRC. Not sure if they get them through NAFTA but I doubt it. And fluctuating currency doesn't have much impact on pricing in the short term. It takes time and if the Canadian dollar is still this strong when the next gen of consoles launch, expect the price to be on par (or at least close) to American prices. BTW, nice nation-bashing, fanousringo. Piss off. If you can't enter this discussion without bashing the US, just stay the **** out.

 Hey now, lets be fair, he was only responding to people bashing his nation first.

rocketpig said: BTW, nice nation-bashing, fanousringo. Piss off. If you can't enter this discussion without bashing the US, just stay the **** out.

Well, you're right, but would you please look at the first 2, ignorant and offending, comments about Canada and 'socialism'? No double standards, I second that. No nation should be bashed here, not only the U.S.

 

 

Let's please not turn this into a Canada versus America debate.

You're comparing the 60 gig to the 80 gig. The 60 gig in Canada is only $50 more than in the US, as you can see.

Yeah, we're still getting screwed a little, but it's not that bad. Companies have been slowly reassessing prices to keep up with the exchange rate, but they prefer to do it at the same time as a regular price adjustment. That's why the PS3 and 360 stayed at their inflated inflated prices for a while after the CAN dollar rose, until the summer price drops came into effect. At that point they used the current exchange rate to figure out the new price, plus the usual 10% "screw you, Canada" levy (thus the PS3 was $550 instead of $520 as it should have been).

It's kind of unfair, I know. Sony was more than happy to raise the price of the PS3 when the dollar dropped at the end of 2006, but when the dollar gets stronger they suddenly have a lot less initiative.

My guess is that the next price reassessment will come at the launch of the 40 gig PS3 and the eventual price drop on the 80 gig model. It's probably too much to expect that they'll actually put them on par with the US prices, but something closer than we have now isn't unlikely. My guess is about $425 for the 40 gig and $525 for the 80 gig. For the 360, maybe when they introduce a new bundle? Another straight price drop on the XBOX is probably pretty far off.

Game prices is where we're really getting screwed. There seems to be an extra $10 markup on them, whatever the base price of the game is: so we pay $70 for $60 games, and $40 for $30 games. Not a very fair and balanced system. But... if you look at online retailers and check the prices of upcoming games, some people say they spot a pattern of slowly approaching parity. Some PS3/360 games are listed at more like $65 than $70, for instance.

So maybe it's happening, although slowly. I've heard economists say it might take 2 years for overall prices to really come down as a result of this, but I'd guess the electronics industry will move faster.

And yeah, you can always import from the US. I might start looking into that more for games, although the loss of warranty from importing a console is a bit much to take.

If you want something to really get worked up about, you should compare our car prices to theirs...