Personally, I've never felt the need for myself or my family to travel out of the Province for great health care, even life and death situations in our family involving childhood leukemia cures at Toronto's
Hospital for Sick Children, which is one of the best in the world by reputation.
For routine check-ups, recently my athletic son walked down to
Mount Sinai Hospital for a free
MRI on his pitcher's elbow ... no wait ... no hassle ... no charge. I like to see my tax dollars working.
Those Canadians who can afford premium health care, such as
Mayo Clinic, might travel to the US or other countries for specialist care that is available even to Americans on the basis of best care for the most dollars.
On the other hand, many Americans travel to Canada for
affordable prescription drugs.
Call me a commie centrist, but medicare is another issue where I value a national system of government subsidized health care that provides a high quality of care to everyone in the country.
It's a
huge issue and it's an expensive proposition that results in higher taxes, which aren't popular with anyone.
The richest of our populations are disproportionately represented in Congress, the Legislatures and Parliament, so affordable healthcare is not really a personal problem for these people. And the insurance companies have some sort of lobby group that has to be accommodated. And doctors don't make as much money when the government controls health care costs. So, who benefits?
For most of the people, universal healthcare is one of the greatest benefits of a civilized society ... and you only have to look at
Canuckistan and Cuba to see how true that is.
