In Andy's post regarding healthcare, he states that the taxes that Canadians pay are akin to the premiums, co-pays, and deductibles US insurance company customers pay. I disagree, chiefly because taxes and fees paid to insurance companies, hospitals, and other health care concerns are voluntary while taxes are mandatory. In the US, a person enters into a contractual agreement with an insurance company, they are not mandated into a healthcare plan as they are in Canada (and under Senator Clinton's plan). The high costs of US healthcare are due to governmental restrictions that force the price higher, not a manifestation of the free market. For the record, I did not mean to imply that Andy was advocating a Canadian system for the US (although many people do advocate for just that).