Health care in Çanada is a long way from being as efficient as citizens expect from a public system paid by taxpayers but definitely preferable to the American where some 40-million are without coverage. Everyone is covered and it is considerably less expensive than the US system.

I had a serious illness 40 years ago that would have ruined me financially under the US system. Imagine the relief of not getting a bill. A friend's child required years of treatment in hospitals---no bill. A hunting buddy had open-heart surgery---no bill. No one complains of paying into a health system they don't use.

To reduce wait times, private clinics paid for from public funds are proliferating. If service is not available in Quebec province, patients are treated at public expense in the United States. I think the Canadian system will evolve along these lines over time, drawing from the European experience.

It's difficult for me to get a handle on the Democratic aspirants' plans but from the sound bites Obama's seems abominable and Clinton closer to a universal system. I don't understand why they don't come out and say, look, the public pays one way or another, private or public, so we're taking the best of the best systems in the world and going with it to cover every man, woman and child.

Health care isn't something that can be covered adequately here. I can tell you---and I'm trying not to be partisan---that Canadians consider their system as the distinguishing difference between Canada and the United States. It's not baseball and hockey, different systems of governance, your omnipotence and our very modest role in world affairs, it's universal care as a sacred trust---and a right.



Last edited by King Brown; 02/18/08 01:44 AM.