Here is a letter to the editor in the Forum of Fargo-Moorehead by an American from North Dakota living in Regina, Saskatchewan.  Regina is the birthplace of Canadian Medicare, and the city I grew up in.   I actually took a few trips to Fargo growing up – home of the great Roger Maris!

I just returned recently from visiting my mother in Fargo, which I do several times a year. I am an American citizen who has lived in Canada for 20 years, and I am a permanent resident teaching at the university in Regina. I am following the health reform debate, and I am bothered by the severe misrepresentation that is occurring about the Canada Health Act and ways in which a universal public health care program is being portrayed in the American media, especially in the attack ads by the opponents to reform.

I was covered from the first day I moved to Saskatchewan in August 1989 and have only used the system lightly until recently. I had a major episode involving a constricture of an artery two and a half years ago and was impressed about the quality of care that was extended to me. I was treated by first-class specialists, and I feel I was given excellent attention. I had free choice of my doctor (general practitioner), and his office was within blocks of my home. However, I have also witnessed how individuals who were severely impoverished, but am sure would have no insurance in an American context, received care in a prompt and efficient manner.

While I pay higher rates of income tax and fuel taxes, I do not pay medical insurance premiums. I have an optional supplemental insurance program for medications, dental and eye care through my employer, and there are proposals being discussed publicly in individual provinces and across Canada to see amendments to the Health Act potentially for extending future benefits to these additional services.

In an op-ed piece that appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail (Sept. 14, A13), a number of comparisons were drawn between the health systems of Canada and the United States. With life expectancy as a basic measure of health care, a U.S. citizen will live to 77.8 years on average, while in Canada it is 80.4. American infants have a mortality rate of 6.37 per every thousand, while in Canada the rate is 5.4. Then comparing the percentage of gross national product used for health costs, Canadians spend 10 percent while Americans spend 16 percent.

While universal health care has costs, it also has efficiencies. Wait times are an ongoing challenge, but prioritized care based on severity of condition is reasonable and effective. The Canadian experience needs a balanced assessment, and a quality of life without the fear of medical shortfall speaks for itself.

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