This is one of those times when Canadians can appreciate where we live. I don't think we should be smug about this, but if you want to have a reason to appreciate what we have in our country (and what we don't have....), this would be one of those reasons.
Most people would remember the difficult negotiations, the partisan bickering and the hyperbole surrounding the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) a few years ago. Our Canadian system was mentioned, and for America, that's saying something.
For reasons that are difficult to understand, most Republicans opposed this plan, despite the fact that most of it was modeled on a system introduced in Massachusetts by Republican governor Mitt Romney. Despite the fact that it made affordable healthcare available to millions more Americans.
Now that the Republicans control the Oval Office and both houses of Congress, they have vowed to repeal or modify the ACA.
This seems to have the effect of costing a lot of Americans a lot of money. Money that many will not be able to afford. So they are back to this:
One Republican congressman, Jason Chaffetz, was quoted recently saying that perhaps people should forgo buying that new iPhone they wanted and instead go shopping for a healthcare insurance plan. His comments have unleashed a storm of comments.
As I said, there's no reason for Canadians to be smug. We should remember that our previous Prime Minister refused to meet with provincial Premiers to discuss healthcare for 10 years. Members of his party and others sharing his ideology made it fairly plain that they wanted to defund Medicare and allow the intrusion of more for-profit components to the existing system.
Our system has challenges and there are definitely aspects that could be improved. One good discussion of this can be found here
A short summary can be found here. I'm just happy that our discussion can be about these issues rather than those consuming our neighbours to the south.
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