Our Canadian health care system has its faults - the most egregious is the division into provincial and teritorial segments under a federal umbrella. Still, no individual can be denied medical care simply because he lacks "insurance" coverage from a private or employment source or because he has a 'pre-existing' medical condition. If someone loses a job because of illness, he may indeed face bankruptcy but that's only because other creditors are in the lineup, not doctors and/or hospitals who will continue to look after his medical needs.

Dear American neighbours,


I have always been able to choose my own doctor, and I have done so a number of times throughout my life.  Moreover, I greatly appreciate the universal health care we have here in Canada, and the only thing that worries me is that the greed fuelling privatization along the lines of what is currently afflicting the U.S. is also at work here, even though "going private" is demonstrably going to be much more expensive and land the majority of people in the difficulties so many Americans now suffer with.  And lastly: our Canadian Medicare is NOT "socialized medicine", if by that it meant that the doctors work for the state.  All our doctors conduct their own private practices.

Hanne Quillevelre,

Dear American neighbours,

Dear American neighbours,

Dear American neighbours,

Watching the healthcare debate in the U.S. unfold it's sad and infuriating to see the shrill voices of the far right using outright lies and misinformation to maintain the status quo.

In Canada we have had universal healthcare for all citizens since the early 1960's, I would argue that it was one of our most defining moments as a country as it said to the rest of the world that we as Canadians would from that point on ensure that no one went without care in times of sickness.

Dear American neighbours,

I have a relative who lives independently with his who was 97 years old when he fell and broke his hip. The next day he was in the hospital

And a day later he had a hip replacement operation. And next month he will celebrate his 100th birthday while still living independently with his wife.

One cannot imagine a US insurance company authorizing the large expenditure of a hip operation to be done on a person of that age. In the US my relative would have suffered in bed for a year in a hospital bed and died.

This talk in the States about government health care targeting aged people for poor service and early deaths is wrong. It is private health care in the US that does it.

Daniel Henshaw

Dear American Neighbours,

The health care system in Canada has been simply wonderful for myself and my friends and family. I am shocked, like many Canadians, by the outright lies being told about Canada's health care system in the US media. Choosing my own doctor has been a very important part of my health care. I have had the same General Practitioner for 24 years, a fantastic doctor. There is no restriction on treatment for people by age, either, another appalling myth.

My mother is 84 years young and continues to received tremendous health care from an array of doctors, nurses, and other gerontological specialists including dermatologists, social workers, nutrtionists and physiotherapists.

Dear American Neighbours,

My experience with the Canadian health care system has been exemplary, particularly in B.C. where I have lived all my 76 years.

I, with a multitude of others, am fearful about the privatization of the Canadian system, which seems to be the goal of some B.C. doctors, who have opened clinics which separate rich and poor in terms of medical care.

The model they use comes from the USA where private health insurance companies spend millions lobbying for continuing the current system which leaves some 47,000,000 mired in debt paying doctors, pharmacies and hospitals for needed services.

Sincerely,

Ron Hansen

Cumberland B.C.

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My Dear Fellow Americans,

Dear American neighbours,

I suffer from a chronic condition that requires me to see a doctor several times a year to obtain prescriptions and the like.  I would not be able to afford this without our one-payer system of health care.  The result for me would be a life of chronic pain. 

Our system allows for full autonomy by health professionals, and provides us with quality care at no cost except for the taxes we all pay, and which we are happy to pay in order to obtain this service.  The system in Canada costs less per capita than that in the U.S., and everyone is covered.  Good for us!

Paula Mallea

Manitoulin Island, Ontario

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Dear American neighbours,

My family's experience with Canadian health care has been excellent!  My mother had a brain aneurysm and she was rushed to a special hospital 100 kms away and a world-class surgeon operated and she is amazingly fine, 6 years later. 

My husband had a near-fatal motorcycle accident last year and this time a helicopter took him to a special hospital and after several operations and several weeks in a coma, he continues to recover just 1 year later!