Canada's Rebuttal to Our Health Care Ghost Stories

For the country that gave us William Shatner, Wayne Gretzky, and Celine Dion, Canada sure turns into a punching bag quickly whenever we talk about reforming American health care. All of a sudden, we hear about the horrors of Canadian socialized medicine (even though, since hospitals and doctors are mostly private, Canada doesn’t even have socialized medicine – they have single-payer, which only deals with financing.) Somehow, all the scary stories – most of them debunked long ago – surface even when we’re not talking about following the Canadian model at all. Well it seems our brothers and sisters to the north have a message for us about the difference between Canadian and American health care.

It can be summed up as, “Knock yourself out – as far as we’re concerned, the joke’s on you!”

Let’s make one thing clear. The health care bills moving in Congress would leave about 160 million Americans right where they are in employer-sponsored insurance, and add about 20-30 million more people into a transparent marketplace (the Exchange or the Gateways) where they’re given subsidies to purchase insurance sold either privately or publicly. That’s the structure that people are yelling about – one that leaves maybe 160, maybe 185 million Americans in private insurance. We can and will debate that, but let’s be honest: it really looks nothing like the health care system in Canada.

What does look like Canada is the health care system that every American over 65 enjoys – and which it seems Republicans are heavily resistant to change (today, at least). Who knew there’d be so much American love for single-payer health care?