The Canadian system does have one benefit, and that is that those so poor they cannot afford basic health care otherwise have it more or less guaranteed to them there. My entire life, those that supported a similar plan here focused on the benefits, but never denied the costs. In fact, to suggest that Canadian health care was better than that in America in any other way was no different than denying the holocaust or the moon landing. People that did were simply never taken seriously. This dogma was so deeply ingrained it was simply never questioned.
It has only been in the last few years that people have started to come out of the woodwork, so to speak, making outrageous claims of Canada’s superiority with straight faces. The one person I spoke to face-to-face thought I was the crazy one. There were so many, and they were so insistent, that I began to wonder if I was misled. After all, I never really did my own research – in the same way I’ve never traveled north to prove that such a place as “Canada” actually exists – I just assume these things because they are never questioned. Then, just recently, I read a book (Not A Conspiracy Theory by Donald Gutstein) wherein the author tries to defend Canada’s health care system and discredit those that would try to attack it, but in the course of his analysis, he actually confirmed many of the negative rumors I had heard! His reasoning was that less than one percent of Canadians can afford anything better anyways, so it is somehow right to prevent them from getting better care to maintain the status quo, which is a source of national pride.
Has anyone heard anything different? Have I been misled?