Given enough time here, most Americans would love our health care system. All you've done is highlight the habit that workers have of bitching about things when they get bored at work. As I've said in other posts, the US would do well to emulate our system, but instead chooses to mostly ignore it and pursue less fair, costly choices.
I have no idea why some Canadians are in RTP. That suggests there are far more rich Canadians out there then I realized. Because almost everything in the US is about money. If money could solve everything, the US wouldn't have some of the worst teenage pregnancy rates in the western world, and the sometimes absurd levels of poverty and violent crime. Your country is obviously not working well for everyone is it ? And why are you commuting here to work ? Surely the US has enough opportunity and you hate it here, don't come here then.
The reason why Canadian are in RTP for health care is not due to wealth, it is because the Canadian health care shipped them to the U.S. for heart treatment, cancer treatment, etc. because Canada has no facilities to provide the necessary treatment. Before you start thinking that this is a good thing, remember that these people are being ripped from their homes, families, etc. because Canada cannot provide treatment for their conditions. Furthermore family members who come visit them have to spend their own money to do so.
Canadians who pay cash for medical treatment simply slip over the border, not travel all the way to North Carolina. This explains all the U.S. commercials on TV targeting Canadian citizens to jump over the border and get MRIs, knee surgery, etc. all promising immediate service. I had at least three Canadian colleagues over the past two years get surgery for their teenage children (sports injuries) done out-of-pocket in the U.S. to avoid long waits.
While I do agree that Obamacare is completely flawed in the U.S. and a give away to insurance companies. The big question to answer first is if universal coverage has value, if it does then the U.S. would be better off emulating the public medical coverage systems in Germany or the U.K. However public-payer system all have a similar problem - they need to ration care which leads to waiting times. The best way to manage the "rationing" problem is to allow private care insurance and facilities in an overlay to the public system for people who are willing to pay more in insurance payments.
BTW... I work in Toronto because I do network security architecture for banks. This is a job you cannot do remotely. You have to go to a banking center to perform your job; New York, London, Toronto, Charlotte, Frankfurt, etc. The banks in Toronto beg for me to select them over other locations; hence the Canadian work permit. I never said I hated Canada (those are your words), Toronto is quite nice as a city-based work location. Everything downtown is walkable, lots of nice restaurants etc. and a diverse population. But don't show up here at work trying to defend the Canadian healthcare system, you will quickly have many disgruntled Canadian citizens telling you off, nor do you want to diss the Maple Leafs (even if they never make the playoffs).... and while you are at it, if you are in Toronto don't defend the French in Quebec.
Paul Krugman insincerely asks a question of Canadians about their healthcare and gets a response he didn't expect.
