I’ll own that. The idea that universal healthcare is a magical dust that means no painful and heartbreaking decisions is wrong. I support universal healthcare because it is the single best way of increasing universal access to medical care regardless of income. And that is such a huge win, that it’s worth a other’s lives.
But pretending that it costs no lives? That is cowardice, and I will not countenance having those who do shoulder the price for a huge social good be ignored or diminished.
The privilege of universal healthcare for someone happily middle class (I’ve got a larger than median household income) like me is not that I have better healthcare than I would under an American style system - it’s that what I pay for medical care through my taxes covers (as best as I can work out), another fellow Canadian. I am given the opportunity to contribute to society in a way that I simply would not if I was left to my own rather greedy devices.
And that is an opportunity that not only does good, but also binds fellow Canadians together (at least most of them :-))
However, the price of providing universal access is that treatments that are too expensive for the benefit they provide are simply unavailable (short of traveling to a foreign country). I accept that. But should I pretend that there are none who are worse off? No. That’s way worse than acknowledging that yes, there are costs to the massive benefits of universal healthcare.
jose, I don’t know where you stand on the spectrum of beliefs in medical systems - but if you are unwilling or unable to acknowledge the costs of your preferred system along with their benefits, then you are unworthy of the beliefs you claim to hold.
