Just been thinking - due to these last few days of governmental boxing - that of the countries I have been in over the last four years, the United States is the only one without a single-payer or national health care. That is, of course, until October 1, 2013 when the Affordable Health Care Act took effect in the United States. My country is really the last First World nation to embrace this. The argument cannot be made that our system has been better because our infant morality rates and other negative health rates are greater than other countries with single payer plans.
When in Europe, and recently in Canada, I knew if I got ill I would get good quality care.
When I was 17, I traveled from Manteca, Ca. to Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada with the lounge/bar band I was in at the time, "GoldRush", to play a gig at a Chinese restaurant/nightclub called "Wong's Palace" (yes, truth is often stranger than fiction). When I crossed the border, I was required to fill out paperwork so I could work in Canada, at which time I was also issued a Canadian Social Insurance card. When I asked what the card was for and was told I just needed to show it to receive health care, my response was, "You're kidding, right?"
ReplyDeleteMore than thirty years later, the US finally passed something that, though short of a single-payer system, at least established a safety net for those most vulnerable, including young people just starting out, poor children, etc. When I learned that a small minority in the US Congress was planning to shut down the government, force the layoff of +800K federal workers and jeopardize the additional private sector jobs our fragile economic recovery's just starting to create, my response was, "You're kidding, right??" :-(