A little late to the party here, but I just finished watching Sicko, a film by Michael Moore. I’m still astounded by what I saw. I sincerely thank God that a) I’m a pretty healthy individual (lack of exercise and such aside) and b) that I live in Canada. I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to be Canadian until I saw that. People complain about long waits and what-have-you with the Canadian health-care system and it’s true to some extent but to be honest, I don’t know of anyone who has died here because of a long wait. When my dad was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer, he was in treatment almost immediately. The only reason he didn’t have surgery sooner was due to the fact that they wanted the radiation and chemo treatments to shrink the tumor before the operation. But the time it took for the family doctor to think there was a problem to him seeing a specialist to him starting treatment was the matter of a few short weeks (2-3 I believe).
My mother-in-law with lung cancer was dealt with very quickly. Her recent hip-replacement surgery was dealt with quickly. There was no months of waiting for either surgery.
I look at that film and know for fact that if I lived in the US, I’d be under a monumental pile of debt right now simply due to when my daughter was born. We spent a week in the hospital because she had fluid in her lungs and was unable to breathe properly. As it stands now, any debt I have is of my own making and not due to medical expenses. My parents would probably be living in my basement with the surgeries my dad has gone through for his cancer and after that a heart issue.
I find it ridiculous in the extreme that a country as wealthy as the US treats their people so poorly and that corporate greed outweighs the rights of the “little people” and that the government who is supposedly in place to serve people is actually abusing them by allowing this kind of thing to happen.
Yup, I’m damn proud to be Canadian. I’ll pay my $88/mo for my Alberta Healthcare premium (which covers me, my wife, and my daughter) — gladly. And I’ll pay my recordable media tax too — we all know what goodness that affords my music habit. All joking aside, I think this has solidified and already solid belief that no one (sorry, Google) can pay me enough to work for them if it means relocating to the US. Ever.