Dazed and Confused

So, my cousins and friends from Canada always seem to gloat over the health care up there.
I take special interest in Canada's affairs, since my mom comes from Alberta. In any case...
not only did Uncle Harry's stateside heart operation speak volumes otherwise (queued),
but now there is documentation on average to back up the conjecture that collective medicine
in Canada is certainly not superior....to that found stateside.

From Neil Steinberg's column, Chicago Sun Times, 3/21/05

Canada always a good laugh

But enough disturbing news. Why focus on it? Particularly when there is good news, truly joyful news. The Associated Press moved a story this weekend that I am savoring, hugging like a beloved teddy bear, rolling around in my mouth like a delicious sweet.

The headline is "Canadians Face Long Waits for Health Care." Perhaps that doesn't thrill you -- then you must not work with Canadians. I do, and I'll tell you, while they are fine people in many regards -- far finer than myself, they'd be quick to point out -- they do have a certain myopia when it comes to their wonderland to the north. Just let somebody be shot in Chicago, let a particular American grossness catch public attention -- McDonald's announcing, for instance, that its soft drinks will come in four sizes, Large, Very Large, Super Large and The Pail -- and their lips will curl in what I've come to term the Canadian Sneer.

"You have to understand, I'm Canadian. . ." they might begin, before immediately giving up with a shiver and a shake of the head, as if their boggled contempt at the crassness, violence and inadequacy of American life is just too much for words.

But on to the story. The vaunted free socialized medicine in Canada, whose cheap drugs we clamor for, has a catch. You can't get it. Years can go by. Teenagers with torn knees face a three-year wait for surgery. A letter from a hospital to a heart patient, informing them of a three-month delay for an electrocardiogram, adds: "If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies."

The average wait for an operation has doubled over the past 10 years -- to 41/2 months. Doctors are being laid off, the system is going broke, and the average Canadian pays 48 percent of his annual income in taxes.

Or perhaps I'm viewing this with typical American aggressiveness. I should see this as a bond, a point of commonality. A heritage both nations share: inadequate health coverage. Because whether you don't get the health care that you need because you aren't insured, or because the system is overwhelmed, the result is the same. Brothers after all!