Canadian Healthcare: the truth

In recent weeks we've been seeing the debate in the United States rage on about what to do with the state of their healthcare system. Currently as it stands the States has a healthcare that basically consists of private insurance companies controlling the distribution and the payment of the service. With the stories of patients having to choose which finger to save because of the cost is scary to me as a Canadian. To hear though the American media lambasting the Canadian system is abhorent. Switch on your TV these days in the States and you'll find stations like MSNBC, CNN and of course the most dispicable of all Fox News attacking the scarry "Socialized" medicine in England and especially Canada.

Before I speak the truth about Canada's "scarry" system I would like two things off my chest, one I personally don't care what Americans do with their system that's up to them to decide, so I don't want to hear Americans complaining about Canadians sticking their nose in their affairs. Two I have no liking of President Obama and his policies, I believed in what he was running for but currently has done nothing to solve the problems internationally that the Bush Administration and his predacessors created. Thirdly I've heard the system in England is even better than ours, so don't knock if you can't enter.

The story of our system begins with one man Tommy Douglas. The man voted greatest Canadian was voted so because of creating the "Evil" Government Healthcare system even though he was never our Prime Minister. He did this as Premier of Saskatchewan in the 1950's and when he became Premier(our equivelant of Governor) in the 1920's the Province out west was the most backward corrupt provinces in the country. There were no roads or even working indoor plumbing. Even worse than that the provinces health was one of the worst in the western world. When TC Douglas proposed the idea of Universal Health for all Sakatchewanites the private industry in the province virtually crucified him. Names like Communist and monster and even worser names. Within fifteen years Tommy beat the doctors, the system and healthcare was not only available in his home province but in the rest of Canada. The Canada health act was signed by Lester B Pearson in the 1960's after all ten Provinces and two Territories finally approved the measure.

Before Tommy's crusade his province and the country was like the US system today, run by greedy profiteers and the Government did nothing to stop it. In fact what turned Tommy on to the crusade he would spend most of his life fighting for was the fact that when he was a child Tommy contracted Osteomyelitis a rare form of skin disease in which his leg had to be amputated beacuse his parents couldn't afford to treat it. The reason why his family couldn't afford the money to pay for it was because they had no insurance, sound familiar?Thankfully a doctor approached the working poor family and offered to do the surgery for free and have little Tommy be his patient for his students to lean how surgeries were done. In laments terms Tommy was a test subject because his family couldn't afford healthcare. Tommy learned his lesson at a young age and when he became Premier he changed everything for the good.

Today our system works fine, The woman on American TV from Canada saying she had to go to the "great system" in the States was from Alberta, and as all of us in Canada know Alberta hardly counts as Canada LOL, just kidding. Seriously her surgery was delayed because a lot of people need surgery and people are called specialists and get paid more money for a reason. Even in the US where people like that dumbass woman from Alberta can afford to pay for immediate surgery is on a waiting list, why? because specialist have other surgeries to attend to as well. Anyways I would rather use my healthcard than my credit card thank you very much.

Finally why would anyone want to live in a system that only treats the wealthy and leaves everyone else in the cold? Only rich people like that dumbass on those Conservative commercials that's who. Americans woke up and finally elected an African-American President, let's hope for their sake they adopt Universal Healthcare. Thank you.