Oh dear, yet more fearmongering at work...
I must say, I still find it pretty funny how what the US calls "left-wing" is the rest of the world's right, and as soon as a party tries to act left-of-centre, they're branded socialist. It'd be almost funny, if you guys weren't the biggest economy in the world.
Anyway, I hope for America's sake that Obama can get the health-care through and keep it up before he and his party are torn apart by the misinformed public. The fact is, America's healthcare system as it currently stands is one of the most expensive and least effective ones in the civilised world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_...ry_comparisons
Look at those charts: The US is clearly spending a lot more than most other people. Look at the link: in general, they're getting less for it.
(there was a better diagram in the latest National Geographic, but I don't have a scanner and I can't find it online)
Whilst Obama certainly isn't perfect, he seems from here (australia) to be the best president you guys have had for some time. I also greatly respect him for moving away from the ultraconservative political view that America seems to have fallen into in recent decades. As I said earlier, trying to fix healthcare isn't socialism (which apparently = communism, which is apparently a very bad thing), it's merely a return to sanity.