okay the topic of the conversation is national health insurance and the pros and cons and do i do we think that the government should finance it what is your opinion
 	
 	
 		i say yes
 	
 	
 		you say yes
 	
 	
 		yes mother lives in Florida and there are in her subdivision there are fifty percent Canadians who won't give up their Canadian citizenship because of the health insurance
 	
 	
 		i have heard someone else uh say that uh the Canadian health insurance is absolutely excellent
 	
 	
 		it's wonderful
 	
 	
 		and one of the ways that they're financing it is they have an exorbitant tax on their cigarettes
 	
 	
 		oh  well
 	
 	
 		this is
 		evidently evidently this is one of the ways that they're paying for the program plus discouraging the people to quit smoking so they don't have to pay out as many uh benefits on like lung cancer and things like this
 	
 	
 		well even if that's so you know really when you look at it they have full coverage they have HMO which you know after you get used to it it's not too bad
 		and uh everything is covered
 	
 	
 		yeah if
 	
 	
 		and we have so many people in the United States that we spend well in my family alone we spent four thousand dollars in July on medical bills
 	
 	
 		oh my word Lynn
 	
 	
 		insurance didn't cover a penny yeah
 	
 	
 		that's horrible
 	
 	
 		yes it is horrible
 	
 	
 		well we're fortunate in that we so far knock on wood most of us have been relatively real healthy so we don't have a lot of medical bills
 	
 	
 		yeah but if
 		uh if you're healthy it's fine but i had two kids in the hospital in July
 	
 	
 		yeah but what worries me is the fact that
 		i don't like the government telling me who i can see and who i can't see
 	
 	
 		yeah but you know Richardson School District has the HMO and ninety percent of the doctors you would choose are on that list
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		are they
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		well i know that Greg uh James had it
 	
 	
 		McCullum is
 	
 	
 		i beg your pardon
 	
 	
 		McCullum is
 	
 	
 		yeah yeah i know that when James was with Continental Steel
 		McCullum was part of that and and that's good but i also heard for instance like uh
 		a friend's daughter was on it through Texas Instruments and she was on that Kaiser Permanent
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and they had screwed up her appointment and when she went in she had to take whichever doctor was available
 		and they she would have had to wait like two months to get the doctor she wanted
 	
 	
 		well but that's
 	
 	
 		but then again i guess you can even do that in McCullum's
 	
 	
 		that's a screw up in an appointment you know i'm thinking going back to the days when i was pregnant
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and i had two doctors
 		and one was my favorite personality wise
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		but when i delivered Ronnie he was not on call the other guy delivered him
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		well that's true and that still goes on
 	
 	
 		you know and that and you know if um i go to Townsend he's got a new partner
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		i go to both of them now
 		you know i have no choice
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		you know because when i want to go if Doctor Howe or whatever his name is is on duty i go to him
 	
 	
 		
  
 		well you know it uh
 		how do you think we're going to pay for it
 		more and more taxes
 	
 	
 		well no we need to cut some of our spendings
 		cut some of the fat off the top
 		and whittle it down to the rest of us
 	
 	
 		i know that it's getting to the point that the insurance doesn't pay that much on catastrophic illnesses
 	
 	
 		no
 	
 	
 		they don't pay anything on uh implants or transplants
 	
 	
 		no
 	
 	
 		and you know people are needing these and the average person can't afford you know a heart or a kidney
 		on just their own
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		but you known Ronnie in Austin
 		went to a program and went to a social worker
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and at the same token there is something because he can get his pills for two dollars when i'm paying fifteen on my medical insurance
 	
 	
 		good grief
 	
 	
 		and he can get free medical care but he has to go to the city hospital instead of seeing David
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and so again you know we went through it Ronnie's home tonight and we talked about it and said you know is it worth it yeah you know he pays forty five dollars a month for his prescriptions where he could pay six dollars
 	
 	
 		hum
 		um-hum um-hum
 	
 	
 		so there are programs you know if you get on Medicare or Medicaid or one of those
 	
 	
 		that's very true
 		well i know they have the Medicaid you know for those that have trouble and i know that like we have the uh prescription cards which that's helped bunches
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and wonder if the insurance companies are fighting the national health or wonder if they're wanting it
 	
 	
 		that's what i read
 	
 	
 		that they are wanting