> <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/09/sitroom.03.html>
>
> all the statistics show that we
> have far worse healthcare than these other industrialized countries.
> We're the only ones that don't have it free and universal.
Not free and universal in Ireland, either. Unless you're poor enough to get a medical card (and you have to be *really* poor - if you have a full-time minimum wage job, you make too much), you pay out of pocket for each visit to your doctor. Doctors can charge whatever they want and the average per visit is about €50 (that's $68.50 at the moment). There is some kind of ceiling to what you will have to pay for hospital stays etc, so you won't rack up the six figure debts you could in the US. But as far as primary care goes, a significant chunk of the population is priced out of it.