I am old enough to remember the bitter struggle over “socialized” health care in Saskatchewan. There were black and white TV commercials showing mothers with very sick and crying children going from one doctor’s office to another only to find them locked because the doctors had left the province. My own father who was a kind and compassionate man would have gone to his grave believing that Tommy Douglas was a pinko communist if his third grandchild (my daughter) hadn’t been diagnosed with late stage Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It was borderline terminal. The first year of treatment cost about $200,00 (in 1987). I explained to my late father that he could have sold his house and I could have sold mine and we wouldn’t have had a hope in hell of paying such a bill. Today, my daughter is healthy, vibrant, and beautiful–in the process of repaying society many times over for the efforts that were made on her hehalf.

LAND OF THE FREE, aye? Free from what? There are millions of Amnericans who are virtual slaves to their employers because they fear losing their health coverage. There are millions of Americans living in fear of getting sick because their coverage is substandard, in jeopardy, or non-existent. And there are those who are getting Third World care. Such a system cannot help but damage the moral fibre of a nation–and its economy–as Mr. Saldana so ably points out.

The Canadian system is not perfect but it costs about half as much per capita as the American system and there is no fear. Even so, there are those who point to the private hospitals in America where the waiting rooms are adorned with oak and marble accoutrements and the care is “instant” for those who can afford it. We need another Tommy Doublas–and a few more Mr. Saldanas who tell it like it is.

This disease has infected the body societal for a long time, as this article nicely emphasizes, and now, in it’s acute stage, whether the patient will continue to endure the pain much longer or seek better treatment is a decision it is fast approaching.

Why is it a radical view to argue that no American should be bankrupted so that an insurance company can profit off their injury or illness? Especially when there are a variety of examples of other countries, without American wealth or power, that have managed to care for the health and well being of their citizens.