Americans are debating the future of their nation's health care and as they do so, they keep looking beyond their borders to the systems in place in other countries. And, very often, their attention rests on Canada. More often than not, at least today, it is conservatives focusing on Canada, telling stories of woe, describing the utter breakdown of health care. You hear of people who have been forced to mortgage their homes and travel to the United States in order to receive basic care; you hear of people forced south of the border by hospitals that have no free beds; you hear of people who are utterly unable to find even a family doctor. Believe the press and you'll think the Canadian system is in utter disrepair.
Now I am not much of one for politics, and especially so when those politics span two nations. Neither am I an economist who can talk about how Canada's health care system impacts the nation financially (though obviously it's a significant burden on the taxpayer). But what I do want to say is this: the truth about Canadian Health Care is that it's really stinkin' good. As a nation we are hard-wired to complain and we do tend to complain about our health system as we grumble about our politicians, hockey players and donuts. But we also like to boast and when we talk to Americans, one of the things we like to boast in most is the health care system (or the beer, depending on your personality type).
You can read the rest of Tim's fascinating article here.
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