There is nothing "free" in Canada, USA or anywhere else. Here's what the non-right-wing Huffington Post had to say about "free" Canadian health care (and the figures cited are higher today).
"Many Canadians and commentators in other countries lauding Canada's government-dominated approach to health care refer to Canadian health care as "free." If health care actually were free, the relatively poor performance of the health care system might not seem all that bad. But the reality is that the Canadian health care system is not free -- in fact, Canadian families pay heavily for healthcare through the tax system. That high price paints the long wait times and lack of medical technologies in Canada in a very different light.
In 2013, a typical Canadian family of four can expect to pay $11,320 for public health care insurance. For the average family of two parents with one child that bill will be $10,989, and for the average family of two adults (without children) the bill comes to $11,381. As a result of lower average incomes and differences in taxation, the bills are smaller for the average unattached individual ($3,780), for the average one-parent-one-child family ($3,905), and the average one-parent two-child family ($3,387). But no matter the family type, the bill is not small, much less free.
And the bill is getting bigger over time. Before inflation, the cost of public health care insurance went up by 53.3 per cent over the last decade. That's more than 1.5 times faster than the cost of shelter (34.2 per cent) and clothing (32.4 per cent), and more than twice as fast as the cost of food (23.4 per cent). It's also nearly 1.5 times faster than the growth in average income over the decade (36.3 per cent).
And what did these substantial funds buy?
Despite talk of wait times reduction initiatives (backed with substantial funding), Canadians face longer wait times than their counterparts in other developed nations for emergency care, primary care, specialist consultations, and elective surgery. Access to physicians and medical technologies in Canada lags behind many other developed nations. And things have improved little since 2003. For example, the total wait time in 2012 (17.7 weeks from GP to treatment) is every bit as long it was back then.
Don't be fooled by claims that health spending isn't high enough or that transfers for health care to the provinces have been insufficient. Canada's health care system is the developed world's most expensive universal-access health care program after adjusting for the age of the population (older people require more care).
Canadians aren't suffering from health care underfunding; they're suffering from health care underperformance.
And it gets worse. Changing demographics mean Canada's health care system has a funding gap of $537 billion. While health care is costly and underperforming today, in the absence of reform the future will either hold large increases in taxes, further reductions in the availability of medical services, further erosion of non-health care government services, or all of the above."
the average wait time for an MRI here in NE FL is: how quickly can you make it to the Radiology room? Doesn't sound like such a great system to me.
I have mixed feelings about the comments here. I do know a lot of Canadians come to the USA for medical treatment, so why is that? I also know a number of Canadians who tell me "no way, Jose!" to Canadian socialized medicine. The same is true for socialized medicine in UK and Iceland (a neighbor of mine who is from Iceland and who was visiting there had an asthma attack and almost died while she waited 3 days to see a doctor).
If the Canadians can afford such first-rate national medical coverage maybe it's because the USA is paying the bill for most of the military forces which also protect Canada. This country has military in almost 200 other countries and if only 1/4 of that budget was taken I am sure we could provide excellent medical care for all U.S. citizens and still have plenty of protection for our people. Let other countries provide their own military protection. The USA is way past broke and only survives by printing more funny money. Our Congress and President are totally irresponsible clowns who look out only for themselves and use our hard-earned tax dollars to buy votes and keep themselves in office and in a life of extreme luxury.
you're right. This is also true of many items sold at so-called "Outlet" malls or stores. The items sold there, while possibly less costly than than the parent brand, are also more cheaply made. I really don't see Walmart as much different than any other mass retailer....none give particularly great pay or benefits to their employees, Walmart is the one always under the microscope simply because they are the largest.
AARP is a left-wing wacko group that gave us the abomination called Obamacare (since AARP sells insurance, they figured they'd make a fortune off it). The idea that it represents people other than it's administration is lost in reality. It is closely tied-in with the left wing of the Democrat party. So, if you support everything the Left does in tearing down America, by all means join AARP.
I have been totally satisfied using B&H, Adorama and KEH over many years. If there's a problem they take care of it. Amazon has fluctuating prices, some items prices will change more than once a day and Amazon is definitely not the always cheapest seller.
A fancy bag shouts one thing: "Steal Me!" When I leave camera gear in the car it's inside a clearly marked diaper bag. Who would steal that?
Self-driving cars and trucks are a great way for the government to further invade your rights, know where you are, where you've been.....etc., etc. In other words more control over you.
I have the 70-200 f/4L Canon and love it....it can also be used with the 1.4X or 2.0X converters. The f/2.8 version is considerably more expensive and HEAVY. If you don't have to have the wide aperture you might be better off with the f/4 version.
I think I'll give that a try. I used the original (long) process to do a 1D4 and 8 lenses. All went pretty well except on a 300mm f/4L Canon lens every time I ran it I got a different adjustment. I will try the Turbocal and see what's best.
they responded quickly, just didn't answer the question
I purchased the Reikan FoCal Pro software package from BH and tried to fine-focus some lenses. In their 159 page manual it mentions what they call their "Turbocal" process of fine-focus and Turbocal would appear to be much quicker than the laborious regular FoCal procedure, assuming it works. question: If the Turbocal works so well, why would anyone bother with their regular fine-focus procedures? (I emailed FoCal this question about 5 days ago and have received no reply except a "ticket" confirmation so far. This company doesn't have bad customer service, they apparently have NO customer service once you buy their software).
I saw this mentioned on another discussion site and wonder if any Hogs have tried it, and if so, which version do you use and your comments on it.
http://www.reikan.co.uk/